Bolt From The Blue
by Acrobat Dances a Playful Tune
Summary: Members of the Justice League are dissapearing, first AC, then Stargirl and now Speedy. A mysterious organisation is targeting them one by one under the leadership of the elusive Caroline Stewart. And there's a new girl at the Daily Planet, Diana Prince...
1. Chapter 1  The Girl From Themyscira

**Smallville**

. . .

_The Girl From Themyscira _

. . .

"I assume you have the consignment we discussed?"

"Naturally," she confirmed, producing the suit-case and pushing it across the table, "I think you'll find the amount there is exactly what we discussed, though do feel free to check, if you _don't trust me._"

The suit – he was a man naturally but he blended into the ranks of private security guards that all wore the same jet-black suits, complete with aviators - took a single look at the suitcase and then produced a scanner, running along the surface of the case and then stowing it away in his jacket, he then regarded the woman. She seemed unmoved, she was possibly the opposite side of fifty, fair-haired and with the pale complexion of someone who had grown up indoors…she was probably Alaskan with her skin that pale. The woman smiled, her blood-red lipstick glowing out at him…unsettling him.

"You will have made our partner very happy." The suit reassured, he looked at the woman and then at the suitcase and then removed it from the table, resting against one of the legs and then stood up, "Would you please accompany me Miss…I am sorry what is your name?" She rose at the same moment and came round the table to stand near to him. She was wearing a very over-powering perfume, the kind that middle-aged civil servants always wear to try and effect femininity on those around them without appearing to be feminine, that was something that added to the overall unsettling image.

"Caroline Stewart," she shook hands with him, "now what is it you want to show me?"

The suit recovered some of his confidence now, leading her away from the table in the warehouse and then leading her to a large double door, he keyed in a code at the keypad – she committed the code to memory 0439586C – and the doors split apart, lights flickered into life at there end of the corridor and as if in chain-reaction they flickered into life as he led her down a corridor. They passed several cells and in her peripheral vision she eyed up the persons contained within them.

One of them was a well-built male, fair-haired and with a sun-tanned body, his hands were bound and he was imprisoned in an X-shape, a single tap in the ceiling of the room dribbled drops at irregular periods onto his head – to a fool it might have been implied they were using some kind of water-torture, the aim of this particular device was to keep the prisoner alive, she could discern that much – the majority of the other cells however were unoccupied, one of them contained a girl dressed in a blue jumpsuit, she was not constrained within the cell, merely trapped within it. She looked at the woman as she swept past with the suit.

"This is quite an impressive facility." She murmured.

"It costs close to Four Billion Dollars; it is one of the most high security facilities in the country." She nodded knowingly as she looked around, first to the ceiling and then at the rest of the cells, then back to the suit, he smiled nervously and moved to the console that they had been approaching all the time. He keyed in a few codes in the keypads and instantly two representations came to life on the screen – one of the tanned male, the name Arthur Curry flashed across the screen as an image of his body, complete with a secondary headshot and then a break-down of his abilities joined the image. The second image belonged to the girl – Courtney Whitmore – complete with the same images as the first, although her abilities were not nearly so numerous being limited to a single line that read 'Power-Staff'. She committed those facts to memory.

"I don't doubt," she murmured, grinning and casting her head back around the room, "so how long have you had your two detainees? Presumably you…your…our partner has plans to take in several more of them?"

The suit nodded and returned to the console a moment, entering several more codes and producing numerous more representations of people on the screen, she could barely take in a few of them, some of them contained names and identities, others simply identities such as 'Green Arrow' – a multitude of images flashed up on the screen before her, she recognized the two she had already seen by the red crosses across them – presumably indicating that they had been captured.

"How much did you say it cost to make this facility secure?" she asked, strolling away from the console a little.

"Four Billion Dollars," he murmured disinterestedly, focusing upon the screen, "like I said it's among the most secure – nobody is going to get in here."

"Right," she said, reaching into her jacket and pulling out her pistol, "unless you leave the door open." She raised it and fired a single shot, felling the person clinging to the rooftop. She moved to the side of the body, the girl was still alive – it wasn't a wound shot, merely one that would disable her. She bent down and pulled back the red hood, revealing the flaming red hair and then removed her mask. "Mia Dearden if I'm not mistaken," the girl said something that the woman didn't like to repeat, "you're a liability," she said looking at the suit, "and I'm afraid I just can't work with liabilities." She levelled the pistol at him and before he had time to reach for his own gun she fired a single shot – this was a wound shot, it passed through his heart – she was a good aim – and then she stowed it in her jacket, pulling out her cell-phone in the same motion.

"I'm afraid I had to shoot one of your men, he was a liability I have however brought you Mia Dearden and the kryptonite, the stupid girl though she could follow me and I wouldn't realize."

"You have done well," murmured the voice, "I will join you in a few moments."

. . .

It was his fault. He'd sent her out into Metropolis and given her a mission and he hadn't followed her, he hadn't placed a bug on her in case she got kidnapped…it was all his fault…he'd lost Mia, she didn't have anyone else and she had trusted him implicitly. Now he was gone…and that wasn't even mentioning Courtney and AC…he had lost three people now, three people who had all trusted him, three people he had known could handle themselves…but was it okay for him to say that they had been over-powered so there was nothing he could have done? No it wasn't...you could always do something else or try something new, there was always a solution.

"What do you want?"

Chloe stood at the edge of the office looking at him, she was carrying a brown paper bag with her, Oliver eyed the bag suspiciously and realized she was trying to come and snap him out of the damaging self-blame that was continuing, he didn't care what she said – this was his fault, and his mess and he would need to find them. Some coffee wasn't going to get any of them back, only action could do that but without Clark he wasn't sure he could do it, and Clark was remaining aloof from the problem: he wouldn't act without more information…so did he expect them all to just disappear one by one till someone stabbed him with kryptonite again and then took him to the prison?

"I brought coffee," she said, offering the bag to him, "you've been here for four days Ollie…I know you feel guilty about Mia but-"

"It isn't just Mia though is it Chloe – it's Courtney and AC too, they haven't checked in either and they've been gone longer…we should have done something when we lost Court'…and we should have definitely acted on Arthur…now Mia's gone and I don't know how we're gonna get her back Chloe…and it's all my fault." He said, turning away from her to look out across the city from the window in hi office.

"Do you think this is what Arthur wants, or Courtney or Mia? Do you think they want you moping around your office drinking yourself to death," she had eyed the empty bottles of scotch warily when she came in, Oliver didn't smell of booze but that was hardly indicative that he hadn't been drinking, "I don't, you need to shape up Ollie – our friends need you and I can't find them on my own – it isn't all me you know, there's two of us in this…we have to both try."

She turned to leave and then froze, "Like Clark's trying?"

She spun on her heel and crossed the room to be eye-to-eye with him.

"He's under a lot of pressure and maybe you should think about that, he has the whole of Metropolis to protect, the Justice League…it's your baby, Clark always preferred being a lone-wolf…it isn't that he doesn't want to help…you know how much he cares about everyone," she paused and looked deep into his eye for some recognition of that fact in Oliver, some recognition that he knew that Clark did care, that he wasn't without compassion, she thought she saw a flicker in there somewhere, "you just need to help me find information…we don't even know if they were all taken by the same person."

Oliver nodded and regarded Chloe…somehow she knew how to bring him back down, how to snap him out of things…even if he was still unwilling to acknowledge the fact, no matter what she said he knew he was ultimately culpable for them going missing…for them being kidnapped…maybe killed. He shook that thought off instantly – he didn't have time for theorizing about what could have happened to them all…he had a city to search to look for clues.

"And Ollie," Chloe said, she had made to leave once more but swivelled to face him, "call in before you follow a lead, you aren't going alone on this one." He nodded and watched her leave.

. . .

"Any reason you're up here all alone Smallville?" Lois asked, walking onto the roof, folding her arms – not because she felt a need to be defensive around Clark but because it was a comforting way to carry herself, it reassured her when they were discussing…things.

"You knew where to come look for me, you know why I'm up here," he said elusively, he turned to face her and smiled at his girlfriend, Lois was one of the greatest things in his life, and as much as he'd wanted to protect her from who he was, from what he did – having her know things was comforting…they could be completely open now, "I'm thinking about them…about AC and Courtney and Mia…I was trying to listen for them but…there's just too much…interference."

Lois nodded, "I thought you were focusing on you know _saving the city_…don't beat yourself up about it…Clark you have a whole city to protect…Ollie and Chloe can deal with tracking down the others, besides do you really think that AC will be in that much trouble? Honestly?"

Clark laughed a little at that, "You might have a point…I just feel…helpless…I know I have my powers but if I can't protect my friends then what's the point in having them?" Lois closed the difference till she was close enough to cup her hands around his neck and draw him close to her.

"Listen to me Clark, this isn't your fault and it isn't your job to save everyone, they have powers of their own and they're perfectly capable of defending themselves," she reassured, removing one hand from his neck to place on his chest, "if they got hurt or got captured then whoever did it over-powered them or knew things about them that helped them," she pecked him lightly on the lips, "now come inside, there's someone that you need to meet." She groaned and drew apart from him, and Clark followed her. They ducked inside the building and rode the elevator down to the office and Clark immediately understood why Lois had grown, standing in front of their desks was a very pretty, black-haired girl with piercing blue eyes wearing a pair of jeans, shirt and jacket that was almost an imitation of Lois's trademark except somehow…_better_.

"Clark would you like to meet Miss Diana Prince; she's one of the new reporters." Lois said in one of her forced-nice voices, the woman extended a hand and Clark shook it, the handshake was tight – almost as tight as one if he'd actually been exerting himself though he'd chose to tone it down, he smiled at her – not revealing that they had shared something between them. She had a pale complexion and was probably about Lois's age.

"It's nice to meet you…Clark was it?" she smiled sweetly at Lois receiving a forced nod.

"Yeah…so what's your field of expertise?" he asked, swiftly moving past the two women and sinking into his chair, he slurped his mug of cold coffee only to avoid making eye-contact with either Lois or Diana…it was not a position he particularly liked being put in.

She grinned, "Well I know a lot about Ancient History but more generally Foreign Affairs…although I tend to adapt quite well to situations."

Clark nodded, she adapted well…although to his mind it wasn't a question of adapting as a question of her surviving a few rounds with Lois. However if her tight hand-shake was anything to go by this was no ordinary journalist, she was another vigilante like him – hiding super-strength, not that he'd let on he knew, not yet anyway, he could ask Chloe to run a background check on Diana when she wasn't busy looking for the others. He'd tuned out of the conversation for a little over ten seconds but he could see Lois was already approaching boiling point, she might be smiling but that smile was deceptive, it was liable to turn into a feral snarl at any moment.

"We'll be right back," he said grabbing Lois by the arm, "just…make yourself at home." She smiled sweetly again…oh that was going to go down _great_ with Lois. He steered her out of the room to the coffee machines and poured himself a fresh mug, pouring one swiftly for Lois and forcing it into her hands so she had something to do other than think about strangling…or trying to strangle Diana.

"_Just make yourself at home_," she imitated, "Ancient History is gonna do her a fat lot of good in one of the most technologically-advanced cities in the States, typical newbie," she took a sip of her coffee, "how does she just swing a job as a reporter, Tess does this all the time…I had to work my ass off to get here and work my ass off to get a piece on the front page…then Tess waltzes back into the _Planet_ like she owns the place and just gives this girl a job…she probably just did it to piss me off."

Clark stifled a snigger realizing that Lois would probably end up with a broken hand if she did since he could tell she'd have the urge to punch him, "One thing, Tess probably is behind this since she's a Metahuman and second just give her a chance, she might surprise you." He sipped his own coffee, "Are you ready to go back in there or are you gonna punch her?" Lois shook her head and followed Clark back to the Office.

. . .

"I can't say I'm delighted to have you barge into my office but never the less what can I do for you Chloe?" Tess asked, not even bothering to look up from her computer screen as she ran through the latest Luthorcorp Profit Margins.

"I just thought that we'd evened things out between us Tess," she said calmly, crossing the length of the office to take one of the chairs in front of her desk, "I thought we'd laid the past to rest and that you were okay with me and with Clark and with Ollie – but you aren't are you? You're still obsessed with Metahumans…obsessed with the idea of having them aren't you? They aren't trinkets Tess; they're real people who didn't ask for this and you-"

"-firstly," Tess interjected smoothly, "I have no idea what you're talking about and secondly yes we are okay, that doesn't make us friends, it doesn't make us allies, it makes us not-enemies, _for now_," she qualified, "though thank you for revealing to me that I'm still your first port of call the moment something goes wrong in Hero-land."

Chloe eyed Tess up and down, she was confident and her face gave away nothing – that was typical Tess, she hadn't really though Tess was responsible, it had merely been an exercise to see if Tess knew anything about it: that was far more likely. So far she wasn't revealing too much and now Chloe had laid her cards on the table she doubted that Tess ever would reveal anything about the subject, at least not willingly. She needed a lead and while Ollie was out this was as close as she could get.

"Sorry," Chloe apologized, "just you do have history with that, and I was wondering if you'd heard anything, you still have contacts within Checkmate – true the hierarchy was wiped out but I find it hard to believe that a government organisation just disintegrates because the Queen dies, that isn't how it works with a hive is it, Tess?"

Tess frowned slightly.

"I'm not sure what you mean Chloe but I think it's best that you left, I have no idea what you're talking about and even if I had contacts who were with Checkmate I wouldn't call them out on this, I don't really want to draw attention to myself, somehow turning traitor doesn't appeal to them too much." Chloe nodded and rose to left, nothing ventured nothing gained was all she could say to herself as she left.

Tess waited a few moments then rose to her feet and moved to look out at the city through the window, she always felt much better knowing that Clark and Oliver and their friends were watching over Metropolis when she couldn't, she didn't know anything about what was happening – beyond that a few of them had disappeared, her PIs had told her that much – and as for Checkmate most of the contacts simply worked in other government departments with _special responsibilities._ She entered the number in her phone and raised it to her ear, listening as it rang a few times.

"I think I have a job for you."

. . .

The door opened and their quarry was thrown on the floor of the limo. He was still dressed in his red-uniform, quite quaint really.

"I assume that you are the one they call _Impulse_," the stern glare she received in return told her all she needed to know, she plucked the taser from her pocket and sent a single blast through his body, "driver, take us to the facility."

. . .

My first Smallville fic so hope you like it,

If there are errors sorry but it isn't strictly set in the canon universe,

And also I haven't seen Season 10 so if this conflicts with that, again apologies,

Acrobat

X


	2. Chapter 2 Mistakes

**Smallville: 2012**

. . .

_Mistakes_

. . .

The office was spacious enough, comfortably fitted and the décor was marked out in her preferred pastels – cream and beige predominantly – yet she was not deceived by the trappings. She had spent at least ten minutes knocking out the various bugs in the room before she had even begun to upload the security software into her computer, it was ex-Checkmate technology but it still worked. She certainly did not feel safe – she wasn't that arrogant or that stupid – but she felt reassured, she had feeds on the detention cells and on the approaches to her office.

She checked on their latest arrival, he was crumpled in the corner – his hyper-metabolism was a handicap in this situation, like his aquatic-counterpart he received nourishment only slowly: just enough to keep him alive. A few morsels into his cell every so often so he wouldn't die on them – they couldn't afford a death, the non-Metahuman two were fed equally miniscule rations: they were not here as guests and they couldn't afford to waste time preparing gourmet meals for their detainees.

In an ideal world she would have liked to have assumed shared-control of the operation before the kidnap of Arthur Curry but unfortunately she had only actually been able to achieve a face-to-face meeting after early mistakes had been made. If the suits working for them had been intelligent they might have recognized that Curry was talking on his cell-phone before they kidnapped him and realized that the contact he was calling was Bart Allen. Allen was a loose end, with his capabilities he could have reached Curry the moment he heard his friend be knocked down by the sonic discharge and indeed he probably had seen everything.

That was why she'd gotten involved with the shipment of kryptonite, intercepting the original seller and taking their goods for her own, naturally she'd ensured there were no loose ends and then she'd arrived at the facility. She'd made short work of Mia Dearden, shorter work than she would have expected it would take to knock down the protégé of the Green Arrow but, then again he was hardly the most talented of the bunch – and then she had gone after Allen. He had not been difficult to hide nor had he been particularly difficult to catch.

A few well-aimed punches had been enough to daze him, and the taser had knocked him out more completely, she had then travelled with him to the facility and overseen his transferral to his own cell – one apart from Curry. She did not want communication amongst the prisoners – she did not underestimate her enemies, nor did she underestimate her partner. He was a particularly crafty individual, and one she was quite sure was unhinged in some way, his grotesque appearance did not endear him to her any further but she needed him at this point in time so she would have to accept that for the time being.

That hadn't however stopped her implementing a controlled leak to Tess Mercer's little Mole lower down in the organisation, Mercer had always been untrustworthy ever since her days in Checkmate and she had every reason to expect that the treacherous _White Knight_ wanted in again, which was exactly why she had leaked the false trail. It was enough information that Mercer would already know to draw her in with enough padding to confuse her, naturally she had hidden a little information in plain sight to be unearthed by them when she needed it unearthing, right now it would just confuse Mercer and make her go silent for a while – which was after all what she needed.

"Caroline my dear," the voice of her partner crackled over the inter-comm, the far wall of her office parted revealing a screen, complete with the visage of her partner on the left-hand side and to the right a collection of profiles of the Metahumans they were in the process of capturing, "may I have a moment of your time?"

"Of course," she said, rounding her desk to face her partner, "what would you like to discuss?"

"I have learned that a former associate of mine is to attend a Charity Gala in the city tonight, I would very much like it if we could cause a…_disturbance._"

"Is he Metahuman?" she probed.

"No," her partner stated, "he has no powers of his own but he enjoys…_gadgets_. I doubt we should be able to take him at the gala but it might be possible to cause…_issues_ for him, I assume you can use some of our _contacts_?"

"It should be possible," she said, comprehending what he meant by issues, "I will see to it that it's all arranged."

. . .

"Well at least your lousy taste improved with Chloe," Dinah said, casting her head across the panorama of Metropolis as if she was hoping a big searchlight would beam into the sky saying 'Base here', she turned back to Oliver, "shame about your attitude…you're still prone to your mood swings, you know Chloe's right about the whole, _this isn't your fault_ thing right?"

He didn't answer, he was to busy surveying the city himself, probably having exactly the same feelings as she did, probably just as worried, probably beating himself up about the whole situation still. She didn't understand it, he was acting like he was their guardian angel and that was an insult to them if he thought that things would have been different if he'd have been there with his arsenal of arrows for every occasion – they could handle themselves and he needed to get past his pride and accept that. Accept that he wasn't responsible for everyone. She knew that if she got kidnapped she wouldn't want him feeling guilty about it or acting as if he could have made things different – he couldn't have, he was just being delusional.

"I don't know what to think anymore," he said, he faced her now, she couldn't even see the little glint of warmth in his eye that was always there normally, even when he was mad, his eyes were cold…he was being consumed by his inner darkness, "this isn't working…if we just split up we'd have probably found something by now."

"Splitting up is what got the others kidnapped," she reminded, she didn't want to hurt him with the comment but it might snap him to his senses, he clearly needed another talking to, and Chloe went soft on him too often…in her experience with multi-billionaire playboys they needed a couple of slaps before they paid any attention to reality, "Chloe might be willing to just let you go on moping or willing to convince herself that you're fine with everything but I'm not – I have my Canary call, all you have is a couple of fancy arrows – I don't care that they took out AC, obviously they can take out non-Metahumans a hell of a lot easier than they can people without powers like you or Mia or Courtney. As long as you're like this you aren't any good to me, you're a liability and your kidnap fodder waiting to happen."

He looked past her to the city and then she realized she'd hit a nerve when she could see the droplets forming at the corner of his eyes, she moved closer to him and he slumped into her arms, sobbing slightly as the tears began streaming. He drew apart from her after a few seconds and sniffed a few times, wiping away the tears and drawing his hood back around his head and putting on his glasses and looking away from her, moving to the edge of the building. She followed cautiously keeping a distance back.

"This wasn't your fault." She said more emphatically this time.

"Maybe you can use that about AC or about Courtney, but no matter what you say I did this to Mia, I took her off the streets, I offered to train her…to mould her into my apprentice or sidekick…or whatever she is – I brought her into this world so the only reason she is with whoever she's with is because I put her there Dinah, and I'm sorry if you don't want to let me feel guilty about that but I have to because I form attachments…because I care about people – maybe that's a flaw but I can't just pretend this hasn't happened and pretend like I'm not upset."

"And you're suggesting I'm not upset?" she scoffed, "Just grow up Ollie – stop acting like you're the only injured party, they're our friends too you know – sure I don't know Mia as well as you but we've sparred a few times and I helped train her a couple of times when you were out of town – and as for the others don't you think I'm worried about Arthur and Courtney and what's being done to them? Don't you think Chloe is or even Clark? He might like to play the tough-man but he's more fricking compassionate than all of us put together – the guy's giving up his life to protect us Ollie.

"I'm not saying don't forget what's happened, I'm not saying don't be upset – but don't focus on it, don't let it overtake you, you have to keep it under lock and key," she schooled calmly, "we will rescue them, we will save them and we will get the people that did this – but to do that we need to do what we can for our friends out here, not think about what's being done to them in there, you understand?"

He nodded slightly less reluctantly than he had a few days ago with Chloe, siphoning away his guilt and his fears into a part of his mind were he wouldn't have them controlling him so resolutely – he couldn't deal with them now, he shouldn't have tried in the first place.

"Let's fine those people – we should retrace Mia's steps."

. . .

She'd recognized the name the instant Clark had mentioned it to her though she hadn't realized where from, Watchtower had only taken a few moments to throw up what limited information she could pool about Themyscira – the island home of the Amazons – apart from a brief visit to the Vatican, the Queen Hippolyte had never ventured beyond the shores of the island, and otherwise there was very little to be said about the island. It was somewhere in the Mediterranean, off the coast of Greece and was supposed to be, according to mythology the site of the Gate of Tartarus – the ancient Greek version of Hell, although Chloe wasn't entirely sure if she could distinguish the fact from fiction.

Diana Prince on the other hand was rather better documented, she had entered the country on diplomatic immunity from Themyscira, she had studied in Athens, Rome and Paris and had arrived in Metropolis a few months previously. She had taken the job at Planet a few weeks ago…and then Chloe's sources had dried up about her. There was very little to indicate she was Metahuman at all apart from what Clark had told her…Chloe was stumped and that was unusual, too unusual. She turned around at the sound of the whoosh to see Clark.

"So what did you find?" he asked.

"Nothing," Chloe admitted, "nothing to indicate she's a Metahuman anyway…she is from Themyscira though – the island of the Amazons," she qualified when she noticed Clark's confusion at the foreign sounding name, "so it could be to do with magic or something else…maybe you should talk to Zatanna? She might at least have some idea about the Amazons…I mean more than I can give you…sorry Clark but I can't really help on this one."

He frowned, "Did Ollie and Dinah find anything?"

"They followed Mia's route that night but they lost the trail part way through…it's been cleaned by someone, like Mia was never wherever she was…Clark I think it's time that we considered checking in on everyone to make sure their okay…something's…something's happened…"

"Chloe?" Clark cocked an eyebrow worriedly.

Chloe frowned, "Bart." Was all she could say, she'd been distracting herself with immersing herself in the culture of the Amazons to focus on the news, she'd tried to call Bart, to text him and she'd even visited his apartment to check in on him and her suspicions had been proved correct, signs of a struggle and that Bart had left in a hurry…which for him was the blink of an eye…they'd taken him like Mia and the others. They'd lost someone else, she searched Clark for a clue to how he was feeling but he didn't reveal anything more, his face was a wall – guarding any outward emotion.

"Clark say something." She implored – she needed him to say something to distract her from it.

"Send that message," was all he replied, "to everyone – even Zan and Jayna," he remembered his admirers, they were doing pretty well at low-level crime-fighting but they remained naïve, and such innocence would be dangerous in the current climate, very dangerous, "I'm gonna go see Zatanna…see if she can shed any light on this."

"Clark…do you think I should tell Ollie?" Chloe asked.

Clark shook his head and left.

She had to tell Ollie didn't she? He was her boyfriend…and Bart was his friend – he would find out anyway wouldn't he? But was it worth doing it if Dinah had brought him out of his slump – to send him back to square one? She couldn't think about that now…she had to find out who had taken them and why, and she needed to do it before Ollie found out about Bart – she opened up her hacking programmes and set to work on Tess Mercer's personal files, she didn't care if Tess had feigned ignorance there was something more to her and she could bet that in the twenty-four hours between their last meeting and the present Tess had already found something, Tess always did.

. . .

_I shouldn't feel challenged, I'm the alpha-female, I'm like the lead-lioness in the Pride and she just needs to back-off. Or does she? Damn it why do attractive girls always have to turn out nice, if they were bitches it'd just be easy because I could go to town on their asses but on this one I have to be kind and sincere and sweet because Clark thinks she's a sweet girl and she actually is one to boot – this isn't an act…if it was an act I'd have smelt it by now. I'm just gonna have to accept this and try and be amiable…without smacking her for being so damn pretty._

"What did you dig up?" Lois asked warmly, sipping at her coffee, ensuring that when she put the mug down her face was smiling perfectly, effortlessly and completely falsely – she couldn't actually smile at the girl yet.

Diana handed a printout across the desk.

"Billionaire tycoon Bruce Wayne is attending a Charity Gala tonight being held to raise money to save part of the Amazonian rainforest, it's going to be full of ecologists, apparently he's going to use it as a platform to announce a new green-project from Wayne Enterprises – do you think its worth checking out?" she enquired.

Lois considered it for a moment – getting the scoop on the ecology angle of Wayne Enterprises would be interesting, not to mention the fact that she'd be interested to prove Wayne over whether he was pursuing this out of sincere concern for the environment or because he was trying to hide up his business's lacklustre C02 emissions record. For a man who was trying to portray himself as compassionate she somehow found his whole playboy billionaire persona a little too reminiscent of what Oliver must have been like in the early days.

"Definitely," she affirmed as much for herself as for Diana, "we need to find out what's hiding behind this story – it has to go deeper than some stupid ecology project, Bruce Wayne is one of the richest men on the planet, he could probably bribe half of Congress to vote against Environment legislation just to benefit his company if he needed, this guy is shady and it's our job to expose him for what he is and what he's trying to cover up."

"Have you ever met him?" Diana enquired – it wasn't said snappily or as a reproof, but in an ambiguous voice, "Maybe he is being sincere – for all you know perhaps he has a conviction to defend the environment, maybe it's important to him."

"I doubt it," Lois rebuffed firmly, "regardless we should go to get the scoop on him but before we do I think we need to do a little more background research on him – worst thing you can do as a reporter is investigate something without being able to put things into context."

"So we should get to know him first?" Diana joked but immediately stopped laughing when she saw Lois's face, "His parents were killed when he was very young, he was raised by his butler, he built his Business Empire from nothing and he recently adopted a teenager – is there anything else you need to know or just the sketchy details?"

"Sketchy details are fine." Lois snapped, getting up from her chair and leaving Diana at her desk, she definitely had the urge to throw her coffee over the girl now…that or just kick her in the head, she couldn't decide which would be more satisfying.

. . .

As far as anyone knew she was still at the office, she'd hired the saloon under an anonymous name and she'd avoided CCTV where she could but it was unavoidable here, she would just have to take the tapes when she got another opportunity, she left the car in a space and walked briskly towards the building, avoiding eye contact with anyone sat in the waiting room and walking straight up to the receptionist desk.

"How may I help?" the receptionist asked.

"I'd like a consultation please, I was recommended by a friend."

The receptionist smiled, "Just take a seat and one of our Doctors will be with you in a moment."

. . .

Hope you liked Chapter 2,

Acrobat

X


	3. Chapter 3 The Caped Crusader

**Smallville: 2012**

. . .

_The Caped Crusader_

. . .

They were boxed in.

They didn't show their fear – that would give their pursuers a satisfaction – they had to remain strong, they had to stick together. They stood back to back keeping an eye on their approaching adversaries, warily scanning them for weapons – it looked as though all they were in possession of were tasers, if they thought it was going to be that easy they were clearly underestimating them – they were no longer simply Zan and Jayna – they were the _Wonder Twins,_ Chloe had faith in them and if they'd had the choice they would've stayed in their apartment. But they had seen a woman be mugged and intervened to rescue her…of course she wasn't actually being mugged – that had been a ploy and they'd fallen for it.

"You ready Z?" he heard his sister say over his shoulders.

"Powers activate!" they yelled, linking arms with one another, instantly gone were the two humans, replaced by a Benghal Tiger, snarling at its foes and in place of the other a wall of water, coursing downwards along the alleyway towards its foes. The Tiger leaped at it's own pursuers, sending one flying with a swipe of its forward paw before gouging a chunk out of its next nearest opponent, the beast rounded upon its two remaining foes but they were slightly faster than their colleagues, two blasts from the tasers pumped into the Tiger, slowing it down and making its swipes sluggish, causing it to fall short of them. It flopped a few times and a final blast knocked it over on its side.

The wave had not failed to notice this, and at that point panicked – stopping its wash down the alleyway and reverting to humanoid form – running to the side of its fallen twin. Not that the colleagues cared about the sign of sibling love, shocking him at a safe distance twice to ensure that he was out cold, the two suits stashed their tasers into their jackets as their mistress stepped out of the shadows, clad in a vibrant magenta trench coat, complemented by matching boots. She surveyed the scene disdainfully.

"Throw the others in one of the cars and get them out of my sight, this was a _simple operation_," she said to one of the suits, sighing exasperatedly as she surveyed the scene…she hadn't realized just how much management they would need, "_you_," she turned to the other one, "put the two captives in the truck, Stewart won't be happy if she's kept waiting for her new captives." She turned and disappeared into the shadows – there was no point in lengthening out the process, especially when she would be the one to deal with Caroline if she was displeased by the progress of the operation.

She'd never wanted to get involved with _common criminals_ but she was being paid handsomely for supervising what was generally straightforward kidnapping, it didn't have the same allure of stealing valuable jewels the world over but it paid well and it gave her an excuse to put her powers to good effect, her eyes flickered to the bracelet on her wrist and then she put her hands inside the pockets of her trench as she strolled back to the truck – she didn't trust Stewart or for that matter her partner who she had yet to meet but that was irrelevant: for the moment. Money was more interesting than the practicalities than working as a part of a team. She absent-mindedly played with her earrings as she watched the first suit gather up his colleagues, while the second brought first the female and then the male to the truck. She could have assisted them but she thought they could at least do something themselves.

The entire clean-up process only took a few moments before she made a last survey of the scene – ensuring they hadn't been witnessed – and then ducked inside the cabin of the truck as they tore away from the scene at the speed: no point in waiting to be discovered.

. . .

It was possibly the most awkward car journey he'd ever been on, Diana was sat quietly in the back in a dress that was in every sense of the word _stunning_, a deep scarlet in colour with her hair worn down for the first time, her flowing black longs trailing down to her waist. Lois looked equally beautiful in her own dress – a one-shoulder black type complimented with simple pearls and a subdued clutch although he could tell that she was feeling challenged in every way by Diana despite his numerous reassurances that he wasn't interested in the new girl, the fact that her hair looked so diminutive in comparison, tied up simply with two curls twirling down either side of her face evidently wasn't helping matters as Lois's eyes kept flicking to the mirror to leer at the flowing black locks, her envy was practically radiating through the car.

Things would probably only get more awkward when Lois found out he'd asked Zatanna to attend the Gala – or more accurately she had invited herself, she had been busy with a show all afternoon but had suggested she could meet him in the evening for drinks and they could discuss the Amazons then. Unfortunately Clark had had the gala and had told her that he had a prior engagement so she had suggested she come to the gala. At the time he hadn't thought too much of it but on reflection he was probably about to cause World War Three. The walk through the lot had been worse since none of them had talked at all until they reached the doorman, security seemed unusually tight for a Charity Gala, Clark counted at least six guards at the entrance, there bomber-jackets however bore an emblem he recognized as belonging to Wayne Industries – clearly since Wayne was guest of honour he was assuming control of things. Clark cast his head skyward spotting two figures silhouetted against the moonlight – briefly – presumably more guards, Wayne really wasn't taking any chances. They flashed their Press IDs and moved past the guards and into the Museum that was acting as host to the evening's proceedings.

The building was already full of people gossiping over drinks – most people were taking advantage of the open bar, there was also a speech platform at the far end of the main atrium of the building, complete with podium and microphone – presumably for Wayne's address. Clark turned to the two women, neither of whom were facing one another; Lois was pretending to be interested in a Dinosaur of to the left while Diana seemed genuinely interested in a depiction of Greek Soldiers…something to do with her heritage no doubt. Clark boldly moved towards the two of them smiling.

"Guess we just split up and mingle then?" he asked.

"Sure." Lois replied mechanically, leaving them to it, probably heading straight for the Bar for some of the free-flowing Champagne they had seen passing round the room, Clark stood beside Diana and followed her eye sight for a moment to the statues.

"Remind you of home?" he quizzed.

She smiled, "You know something of Themyscira?"

"Only that it's the home of the Amazons," he grinned back, "although that's all mythology right?"

"Some of it," she said elusively, "I think it's best that we started mingling Clark, I wouldn't want Lois to get the wrong idea." She indicated the Bar and Clark could see Lois sending daggers at the two of them, he nodded and left her alone checking his cell – no message from Zatanna, he was hoping she wouldn't just appear out of nowhere like she normally did but something told him Zatanna wouldn't opt for the low-key arrival. He left Diana looking at the statues and begin moving deeper into the crowd – he didn't want to run into Lois, especially with the impending arrival on his hands.

. . .

As Watchtower life was lonely but it was always rewarding when she reminded herself she was helping people – making a real difference as Clark's eye-in-the-sky, directing him and coordinating Oliver's team…except somewhere along the line she'd failed in the latter objective following the spate of kidnappings. With Bart gone that didn't leave a lot of them, the only thing that was keeping her together was the knowledge that Oliver was patrolling with Dinah – at least together they were less of an easy target and though she'd never have admitted it to their faces they were a lot more mature and a lot more capable of defending themselves if they got into a situation.

She patched through a call to a Victor and let it ring out a few times before cancelling the call – that wasn't a good sign, he normally answered instantly, and she tried again and then switched tack, cycling through to the security feeds on his apartment block. It took a few moments to hack into the system before she found the digital file of the camera looking at his floor – as she'd predicted Victor left his apartment, suited up. She scanned through local feeds till she found him again – he was helping an old man that was being beaten…too late Victor realized it was a trap and he started taking down the suited men closing in on him. He blasted away the first few ranks and harmlessly deflected the electrical charges of the tasers – there were only a handful left when he collapsed to the floor, writhing in pain as a dark shadow fell across him, consuming him and then retracting, leaving him still on the floor – unconscious.

She cycled back through the film feed and then compared it to several other local cameras before finding one that centred on where the shadow had come from, she made out a figure almost completely dressed in black with a head crowned by an austere Top Hat – the energy-field emanated from a cane upon which he rested both his hands, his eyes were obscured by a pair of tinted circular-lens spectacles. She ran the Watchtower facial-recognition software over the figure, within a few moments the profile of the figure, identified as the _Shade, _alias Richard Swift. It didn't make sense – Watchtower listed him as incarcerated, he'd been apprehended in Central City months ago for an attempted break in at a maximum Security Vault that had been playing host to a ruby that dated back to the Aztec Empire.

After a few moments cross-referencing various sources the suggestion of the feed was confirmed, the Shade was no longer behind bars and had been responsible for kidnapping Cyborg – something seemed amiss about that fact, she cycled through the prison record for the Shade but was flagged up before she'd even gotten there by two names appearing as released: Black Manta and Cheetah – they were not the only ones either. It was a confidential database and a government one too – someone had been pulling strings to release supervillains and Chloe couldn't find a reasonable explanation for it – the government wouldn't just release maximum security inmates…

Checkmate was defunct and the government had become generally more amenable to the vigilantes assisting in combating crime…though she couldn't doubt what she'd seen, a Metahuman was involved in the capture of Cyborg…which meant it was either a skeleton from Clark's closet targeting the Heroes or more likely somebody employing the villains to do their bidding. She heard the step behind her and turned, instantly regretting it as a blow smashed into her right temple sending her flying to the floor, she hit it with a sickening crack and blinked her eyes a few times, her last sight before the blackness consumed her was a lilac light pulsating in the room.

. . .

"Champagne?" Zatanna asked, offering Clark a glass as she drained her own, swopping it for a full one as a waiter swept past them in the centre of the crowd, where most of the guests were milling about expectantly: awaiting Wayne's speech. Clark turned grinning to his friend and then frowned – she hadn't opted to change out of her act dress, she was still wearing her trademark fishnets, accompanied by her top-hat, waistcoat and presumably, her wand somewhere though Clark didn't want to think about where she was concealing it.

"Glad you made it," he said sipping at his own drink, "so I suppose the thing to ask is did you find anything?"

She smiled and produced a notebook – a journal, the paper-was yellowing and the cover was starting to wear suggesting it was old, without even touching it the book opened itself to about half way were Clark was given a few images of what looked like the Greek Armour he'd seen at the exhibit with Diana before, a hand-drawn map of the Mediterranean, complete with a red dot labelled Themyscira and the next few pages were handwritten notes under the umbrella title "Amazons."

"Is this your father's?"

She nodded, "He kept notes about things he learned on his journeys, I see Lois is still jealous," she flashed a perfect, pearly-white smile at Lois who was shooting them both daggers, Clark had been afraid of _that_, "putting it simply, as there is an element of reality to my magic act, so there is an element of reality to the mythical tails of the Warrior Women – the Amazons. The reason Diana had the vice-like handshake is because she is an Amazon, Themyscira is the site of the gates to the Greek version of hell, Tartarus and the Amazons are duty bound to guard the gates because of something that Hippolyte did years ago. Since Tartarus is full of…demons the Amazons need to be stronger than the average human, magically empowered actually…although the details about their abilities in the journal are a little sketchy.

"Diana is Hippolyte's daughter and the reason she's interested in that armour," Zatanna had spotted her admiring the Greek exhibit on the far side of the Museum, "is because it is very reminiscent of what she and her sisters wear when on Themyscira – she isn't exactly a Goddess but she is…a supernatural being, she's very powerful, and there's probably a lot more to her than I know. My dad couldn't go to Themyscira because the presence of man there is banned – the Amazons don't believe in a need for man…although evidently she's not your average Amazon."

Clark nodded with comprehension, "So do you have any idea-" but he went quiet as he heard a male voice being cleared in a microphone, the Museum came alive with applause as heads turned to face Bruce Wayne – this was his first face-to-face with him. He had jet-black hair, cropped on the sides but fuller on top, spiked a little with gel: solely to be fashionable he suspected privately. He was probably Clark's age, with piercing blue eyes and clean-shaven face. He was dressed in a traditional tux with bow-tie, he didn't grin but his speaking voice was none the less encompassing.

"Wayne Industries has always striven to diversify," he began, "and our new venture, here in Metropolis I hope will improve the city and help the environment – which is of course why we're all gathered together here. A new extensive Wind-Farm will be built on the outskirts…" Clark wanted to concentrate, truly he did – not just because there was probably a story in the speech but also because he wanted to observe Wayne a little bit more – he seemed something of an enigma. However his attention was elsewhere.

There was a sound in his ear that he couldn't quite distinguish, champagne corks popped and some people continued gossiping, albeit at more irregular intervals and far quieter before but they went on – it wasn't in the atrium, he deduced that much: so he cast his ear upwards and there he found it. The speakers almost concealed it – almost, but he could hear the underlying noise – a clicking, like cogs moving together, it would have been recognizable anywhere – a gun site. He cast his head skyward and spotted the barrel, poking through one of the slim windows in the roof of the museum – he wouldn't be able to reach Wayne in time to take the bullet.

He looked to his left – the statue of the T-Rex that Lois had been so interested in before reared up on its hind-legs in an attack pose, he silently moved away from Zatanna at hyper-speed toward the statue and moved close to its legs, selecting a bone at the base of its right leg and yanking at free, placing it on the ground and returning to Zatanna's side within the blink of an eye. She had clearly heard him departing as she turned to look at him as he returned but her eyes were consumed with fear as the T-Rex teetered and then collapsed, lurching forward and causing the crowd to scatter – it was enough of a diversion. Wayne moved and the sound of the bullet was drowned out by the general screams – Clark looked to the stage and the man had disappeared from stage although the smoking bullet hole in the podium was evidence enough that the assassin had been there.

Clark spotted one of the exits and ran for it, only to aware that Zatanna was following him – he was running at human pace; there was no point at going super until he could change out of his tuxedo and to do that he would need to get on the outside. Zatanna followed him through the door and then cast her head skyward; she could make out figures on the rooftop fighting and then scanned the alleyway for a way up. She spotted a rusting fire-escape latched onto the neighbouring apartment block and focused upon the ladder.

"Rewol reddal," she said summoning the ladder down, turning to see Clark dressed in his blue-red suit, Clark grinned and then she realized why and groaned as they leaped onto the roof, "oh to be _able to fly_." She joked, sprinting off after Clark as he began running across the rooftops after the four figures they could make out in the darkness – illuminated against the strong moonlight. Zatanna regretted wearing her heels, though it at least gave her time to figure out who they were pursuing – the two lead figures of the four were thugs – probably the ones whose attempt on Bruce Wayne's life they had thwarted. The following two were not running together, one had the built, muscular-figure of a man at physical peak, he was dressed in a kind of suit with cape and hood – the following figure was an equally physically fit, lithe woman who was wearing…very little…blood red boots and a kind of leotard, without straps, the upper half was scarlet in colour but the bottom part was blue in colour with stars – in the moonlight she could see it glinting of some wrist bracelets and a tiara crowning the flowing black hair.

Clark was still a little distant from the two of them as she saw the male figure draw level with the foes, he knocked the first one down with a stiff uppercut to the jaw but the second one responded with an equally hard punch and then followed it with another one to the gut and kick to the groin, the caped figure crumpled to the ground. The first one rose now as the woman arrived but she was not as easily swayed, she mirrored the uppercut but then followed it, clasping her hands together and striking him on the back of the head, knocking him out cold down to the ground, while aiming kick at the second one's chest, sending him reeling across the rooftop till he slumped on the ground. She stalked over to him and grabbed him by the neck before dropping him, contented that he would cause no further issues.

Zatanna finally drew level with the woman and Clark a few moments after the Blur himself had drawn up at the scene. She identified the woman as Diana and then made the connection to a drawing of the outfit she was wearing that she'd seen in the journal – it was the legendary armour of Athena and then she walked toward the two figures more confidently.

"This is Zatanna Zatara – she's my friend." Clark introduced, casting his eyes over the caped form on the floor.

"A sorceress no less?" Diana tweaked, smiling and extending a hand to shake, Zatara did so but slightly gingerly – she had after all heard about the vice-like grip off the wonder woman. It wasn't as ferocious as she'd expected but it still left her hand slightly sore.

"Something like that," she grinned, "more like an amateur that knows a few parlour tricks – you're wearing the armour of Athena aren't you?"

She nodded, "It was a…_parting gift_ from my mother before I left for the world of man – he went down rather more easily than I expected, I imagine he was slightly disorientated." At that moment the figure groaned and Diana and Clark both registered the recognition on Zatara's face, "You know who he is?" Diana probed.

Zatara bent down beside the figure and rolled him over, moving to lift his mask and receiving two black-gloved hands on her arms pinning them back from doing so, the figure sat up and then sprang to his feet, "You shouldn't have done that." He growled.

"Of course I do, Clark, Diana may I introduce Bruce Wayne."

. . .

Hope you liked Chapter 3,

Just a note please don't confuse my **"characters"** section as relating to any planned romances – that isn't what I intended in listing those characters, it was just characters that were involved,

Chapter 4 up in a little while,

Acrobat

X

_I shall shed my light over dark evil. _


	4. Chapter 4 Much To Learn

**Smallville 2012**

. . .

_Much To Learn_

. . .

The purple light was pulsating. Glowing brighter…it was all consuming…and then darkness. She sat bolt upright in her bed and scanned the room – was she in a hospital? The bed was wide with the plastic sides she'd associate with a hospital, though it lacked the typical monitors and medical equipment – not to mention that the windows were sealed shut. Chloe slid her legs over the side of the bed nervously and felt the cold laminated floor on her feet and immediately retracted them. She eased of the bed and walked around the bed a few times before moving to the door – it was locked several times externally: no getting out that way. She then cast her head to the ceiling.

There were some lights but it was otherwise a blank ceiling – still without clues. She would just have to wait out the situation; she returned the bed and sat on it – focusing upon what little she could remember. The purple light and then the blow to her head…and then it had all gone dark: she'd been rendered on conscious by someone…or something. The light hadn't been an energy blast though…it had been more like background energy or lighting – as though it had been generating something or assisting something…before her investigations could progress further she heard the sound of her locks opening. There was a chance she could rush the person entering but she suspected if she was in a compound that escape wouldn't be that easy nor would it be as straightforward as walking out the door – kidnappers weren't that stupid.

A woman entered, dressed in a simple black dress that enveloped her feet giving her the semblance of gliding across the floor, she had shocking amethyst coloured hair, her lilac locks trailing down to the small of her back – her eyes were the same heather-colour, she was by her looks late-thirties though judging by attire she was not all that she seemed – or perhaps she was more than she seemed. Chloe didn't visibly stiffen but she felt her heart start beating far quicker, even the woman's warm smile didn't calm her…it in stead made her more worried.

"Would you like a drink?" the woman offered in an Eastern-European accent where the 'W' sound swopped with that of 'V', she seemed sincere though Chloe hardly trusted her, she shook her head slightly. "You are worried are you not?" Chloe didn't reply to that – no reason to give the woman any information, "This is not unforeseen," she murmured almost to herself, "but please, be reassured you are among friends Miss Sullivan."

_Friends?_ She didn't even know the woman in the room with her and she had a very…unsettling persona, it was somehow reminiscent of Dracula, Vampires were ridiculous but somehow her entire persona reminded her of those Gothic novels, her whole appearance alluded to the appearance of a Witch…or of someone evil…it didn't exactly endear her to Chloe's confidence. She had obviously been kidnapped by the people that had taken her friends…she recalled being struck on the right Temple and touched it but found no wound, or stinging sensation.

"I am sorry about that," the woman apologized, "I did not mean to hit you quite so hard, unfortunately I was informed you would not come willingly – I shall remember that my petrifaction skills need a little work – there is no pain, yes?"

Chloe nodded and immediately regretted it – she had started a dialogue.

"At least I have done something correctly, I shall return in a moment." She said and left Chloe in the room, she heard the door locks open and the woman left, she returned a few moments later with two glasses of water, handing one to Chloe while she sipped at her own, Chloe nervously drank from her own – she didn't know if they would poison her after taking here there but you could put a lot worse things in a person's drink than poison, fortunately this tasted quite normal and she gulped it down thirstily. "You have been asleep a little over thirteen hours – I induced you into a sleeping trance."

"Who are you?" Chloe asked boldly, "Where am I?" She might as well start somewhere and here was as good a place as any…if her captor wouldn't tell her anything then she'd find out now…alternately it could all be misinformation and there'd been a slow-moving truth agent in the glass of water which was only now starting to affect her system and in a few moments she would be completely under the woman's spell.

"I am not important," the woman replied elusively, perhaps a little hint of defence to her voice, "you should only be concerned with the Director – and as for where you are you are somewhere that is _safe-_"

"-for now," murmured a voice Chloe instantly recognized, she had heard the door opening as the purple-haired woman made her speech, Tess entered, dressed in a businesslike suit with her hair tied back, she smiled, "hello Chloe – I'm so sorry we couldn't meet under better circumstances but I needed to ensure that I got you somewhere safe because we both know that glorified penthouse is hardly a fortress."

"What am I doing here Tess, what do you need?" Chloe probed determinedly, staring the woman down from her perch at the opposite end of the bed.

"In short I need your brain – and since you're the repository of all Metahuman based knowledge you're a prime target for whoever is responsible for the kidnappings," Tess grinned, "and I need your help if I'm going to stop them from taking everyone and leaving the Earth defenceless."

Chloe cocked an eyebrow, it was certainly a different angle for Tess – acting on behalf of Metahumans to save them, though she was still using her favoured Checkmate tactics of kidnap and coercion to get her job done, she passed her eyes over the other woman who hadn't spoken since Tess had come into the room – it wasn't fear, she doubted that was the emotion, it was more like a respect, clearly Tess had done something for the woman. Tess watched Chloe's eyes lingering over the woman.

"This is Tala," she introduced, the woman smiled a little bit, "she's quite the Sorceress, more powerful than the Zatara Girl, much _more powerful_," she emphasized, "she and a few friends are helping me, and you're my newest recruit – and I'm so glad that you agreed to help out Chloe."

"Did I Tess?" Chloe asked, "I don't think I ever volunteered my services."

"I don't think you have a choice," Tess declared simply and plainly, "either you help me Chloe or you'll lose all your friends, I'm your one shot at getting them all back because this entire thing is bigger than Clark, trust me _I know_."

Trusting Tess Mercer…that was a new one.

. . .

Wayne ignored the gazes of the other three and moved to check the two unconscious assailants, examining them both and then returning to Clark, Dianna and Zatanna, "They're dead." He grunted simply, and then he moved past them, looking as though he was trying to judge the height of the building's and see if he could make the jump to the ground – something that for a non Metahuman would be impossible, Clark had guessed from his running speed and the impact of his punches that he was the only one of the four without powers.

"You took a couple of hits you can wait a few minutes." Clark suggested looking at the height, Wayne turned and glared at him from behind his jet-black mask, the glare softened a little but the face remained hard-faced and grim. Clark took in the entire suit – presumably there were some gadgets housed in the lemon-coloured belt he wore at his midpoint…he was impressively built for a human, perhaps even a little more physically fit than Oliver and that was something rare. The entire ensemble seemed to Clark a little melodramatic then again he was the one dressed in sky-blue with bright red tights, Wayne moved closer to them and looked Clark in the eye.

"I'm fine," he insisted, he turned to look at Diana, "I'm not sure who you or your Princess friend are but you weren't the ones who got shot at tonight, now if you're done stalling me I have to try and find out who tried to kill me and what it has to do with…" he cut himself off mid-sentence, "…don't try and follow me – you won't find me and I don't need your help." He aimed the last part of the sentence at Zatanna before moving off on his original course. Producing a hand-held device and firing a grapple onto a neighbouring building, swooping away to the ground and then disappearing into the night.

"I'll check them over." Zatanna said, Clark couldn't be sure but he thought he saw little tears forming at the edges of her eyes – something had happened between those _two_, she left him with Diana while she ran her hand over the two motionless bodies. Diana was frowning, looking in the direction of Wayne – towards the darkness of the street below, there were a few streetlights but most of the streets had been plunged into abyss.

"I think he can handle himself…" Clark said, smiling weakly but Diana wasn't smiling, she seemed concerned by it.

"I hadn't realized quite how stupid some men are," she declared briskly, she turned to look at Clark, "sorry…it's just…if someone is looking for him, running off into the darkness isn't going to him any good and neither are his…_weapons_, he used something similar to a discus to try and knock down those two," her gaze lingered over the bodies, Zatanna was examining the second one, running a white-gloved hand over his chest, Diana crossed the rooftop and grabbed it, lifting it up and handing it to Clark, it resembled a bat but the edges were sharpened slightly, "unfortunately I think they were wearing armour of some sort."

Clark nodded, "Zatanna said that was the armour of Athena…wasn't she a goddess?"

"The Amazons are a complicated people Clark…Athena was a goddess – an Olympian…something happened between the Olympians and their enemies the Titans, my mother played a part in that something…and we were gifted our strength," she said vaguely – deliberately so, there was no point in getting into the nitty-gritty of Ancient Greek History: the facts and the fiction, "and we were also gifted Athena's armour…it was intended to be used for good, I'm just putting it to good use. It amplifies my existing powers and gifts me others." She looked towards Zatanna who appeared to be finishing examining the assailants, "You aren't of man's world are you Clark?"

He cocked an eyebrow in confusion.

"You may hide it well Clark but you're more powerful than the other men of this world," she smiled, "when I met the editor at the _Planet_ for my interview their handshake was…not as strong as yours, yours felt almost the same but there was a twinge of something else there…something…_alien_…" she allowed the thought to drift away as Zatanna rejoined them.

"Some kind of implant?" Clark probed thoughtfully – it would explain how they'd both died simultaneously, a central control signal that would explode and destroy their brain, short, painless and above all _swift_.

Zatanna shook her head, "It was a spell of some kind…it was old magic…powerful magic…Clark I don't know who cast the spell but they know magic that I don't understand yet…things that I either haven't come across in my father's teachings or things that even he didn't know…to kill a person like that their magic has to be strong, they cast the spell at a precise moment from a distant location." She paused to allow the news to sink in, "Look I'll go after _Bruce_," the way she said the name confirmed Clark's suspicions that they had history, "I'll…I'll call you or something."

. . .

"Of all the people I expected a phone call from you weren't exactly…" Dinah paused as she entered Watchtower, looking left and right and then back to Lois – there was a diminutive, smart blonde missing from the room. "Lois…where's Chloe?"

Lois had tears welling up in her eyes, Dinah increased her pace to intercept Lois, allowing her to fall into an embrace, sobbing softly into her shoulder…she'd clearly been holding things back when she'd called Dinah and now it was all coming out, she was falling apart – she was right then, Chloe was the latest victim of the people abducting them. She scanned the screens – it was the files on everyone complete with red X's marking the headshots of those of them who were now missing in action – AC, Mia, Bart…but then there were more, Victor was gone and the Wonder Twins, John Jones had his card marked…and even Chloe's card was marked. Lois stopped sobbing and pulled apart, her eyes still puffy and wet with tears.

"I came in here to see her…I just guessed she'd been working late since she hadn't text me back after I left the Charity Gala and then I came in today and she was missing…and then I found blood on the floor," she indicated a spot on the floor near one of the interfaces and sure enough there was a drying burgundy stain, "they took her Dinah…we've lost Chloe…and then I looked through her files…Dinah she's been covering it up…John's the most recent: he went of the radar a few hours before whoever broke in kidnapped Chloe…Zan and Jayna went missing like two days ago and Victor went missing just after them."

"Did you check the security tapes?" Dinah asked.

Lois shook her head and they immediately moved to the store, plucking out the relevant disk for the timestamp when Chloe would have been at Watchtower and slotted it into the player of one of the screens. They then began fast-forwarding, Chloe had been working for hours at the interface…probably checking up on the few remaining heroes that were still out there and then at close to eleven a woman entered with purple eyes, flowing lilac hair and then static ruined the recording as she approached Chloe…whoever she was she'd taken Chloe from Watchtower.

"At least we know what one of them looks like." Lois said exasperated, she was a little less teary now but still clearly shaken, "what do we do without her Dinah…we have to tell Oliver."

Dinah considered that, "He's only just come out of a rut Lois, hitting him with _you're girlfriend's been kidnapped _might not be the post sensible of decisions…not yet anyway – look I'm out patrolling with him tonight, I'll tell him then – he'll be focused, it won't faze him: if you tell him while he doesn't have anything to focus on other than the fact that Chloe's gone he'll implode, do you understand?"

"Sure," Lois said uncertainly, fixing Dinah with a look, "I…I should get going." She moved past Dinah towards the elevator, she needed to get to the _Planet_ at least in work and glaring at Diana she might be able to get something constructive done, Clark might think their relationship was innocent but she saw something in the corner of Diana's eye, she might be a Greek Goddess but if she thought she was stealing her man she was _wrong_.

. . .

The decorum of the office was somewhat at odds with her partner's attire…she sometimes failed to understand how he could live dressed as he was…looking like he did…it was enough to make her want to throw herself under a car – until she reminded herself that the world needed her to defend it against Metahumans, and she would do anything to carry out that mission. She had not been expecting the summons but she had arrived and smiled politely, settling into an armchair in front of his desk.

"Your capture of Jones was rather impressive," he murmured from his high-backed swing-chair, "I had suspected the Martian might put up a little bit more of a fight – still he is now in custody, how are the rest of our inmates proceeding?"

Stewart smiled, "Victor Stone has had his powers nullified by our nanovirus, without the ability to touch one another neither of the twins can engage their powers and Jones is finding that our simple flame-perimeter has rendered his powers quite useless, as for Mr Allen his powers are useless in the cell: there isn't anywhere to run…and the other inmate are suitably disabled."

He made an approving sound, "It is a shame that our plans have been rather complicated," he indicated the screen attached to the wall and she turned to face it as two profiles appeared on it, a woman – who she was unfamiliar with, flowing black locks and crystal-blue eyes – the screen identified her as Diana Prince, and a man whom she suspected most of America, if not most of the world was familiar with, identified easily by his jet-black hair and matching sapphire-coloured eyes as Bruce Wayne, "by the appearance of new…heroes."

"I hadn't realized that Wayne was a Metahuman," she murmured turning to her partner, "what are the woman's abilities, she doesn't appear unusually powerful." Stewart cast her probing gaze over the image again, searching for something that was out of sync with the image – something that might reveal the true extent of her powers.

"Prince is a member of the race of warrior women known as the Amazons," her partner murmured cryptically, "she is possessed of super-strength, a suit of armour crafted by one of the gods of Olympus and a lasso that gives her the ability to force someone to tell her the truth. Wayne is not a Metahuman, he is far more _dangerous _than that, he has an incredible intellect and is at the peak of physical fitness – his abilities are perhaps more potent than some of the Metahumans we are facing."

"How do we tackle a God – even with your _associates _helping us I don't see how we can resist them…" she trailed off as he raised a hand for silence.

He grinned, "I have already made arrangements to remove Diana Prince, may I introduce my newest recruit to our program," the door to the office opened, admitting a woman with brilliant golden hair, dressed in a toga and sandals, she had the same eyes as Diana but her facial structure was different, with a more defined jaw line and a slimmer overall physique. She wore several bracelets at her wrist and a necklace with a pendant in the centre with an exquisite Emerald forming its centrepiece. "May I introduce Aresia, a fellow Amazon sister to Diana."

"I am glad to see you have taken the focus of your vendetta toward Bruce Wayne," Stewart confided, "I am sure that Aresia will prove an invaluable ally – shall I introduce her to the rest of our _friends_?" she quizzed – although some of their recent supervillain recruits showed a modicum of leadership ability most were spineless cowards who would turn tail at the first sign of danger, the kind of people that needed a strong leader – and Aresia seemed to secrete formidability into the room.

"She will be working alone," confided her partner, "but thank you for the offer – you can however brief these two," he stood up and handed her dossier containing information, "about their newest mission." Stewart opened the dossier and briefly skim-read it and frowned as she saw the name contained within it, _Bruce Wayne_, clearly he wasn't over the issue. "Is there a problem Miss Stewart?"

"None," she replied curtly and bowed out of the room, leaving Aresia alone with her colleague.

"She has no idea does she?" Aresia quizzed.

"None whatsoever and she will not until I am in a position to do away with her." He grinned and eased back into his chair, inter-locking his hands. She was a foolish, arrogant woman, and when dealing with supervillains those were two rather glaring handicaps, handicaps that could be very easily exploited and were being.

. . .

Hope you enjoyed Chapter 4,

Chapter 5 up soon, with some revelations to come to,

Acrobat

X


	5. Chapter 5 Fury

**Smallville 2012**

. . .

_Fury_

. . .

Finding the hotel had been the easy part: she knew exactly what kind of haunt Bruce looked for when he was on business – somewhere suitably upmarket that it kept up appearances of the billionaire playboy but equally low-key that he didn't attract unnecessary attention. Besides the billionaire reputation, his vigilante work also necessitated a cover. Zatanna had known him as a child – their parents had been friends – but the last time she'd seen Bruce she'd been performing her magic act in Gotham but attracted the attentions of the _wrong guy_. Once he'd helped her as his alter ego – _Batman_, something that she personally found less than intimidating, she'd decided to move to Metropolis, but, not before being led on and being stood up at a restaurant. It was partly her humiliation at being stood up which had prompted her to unmask him the night before. However she'd decided to track him down and see that he was actually alright after the confrontation, it wasn't just his body that had been bruised by the encounter.

Dressed as she was she was bound to attract attention, and although that eliminated the possibility of a stealthy approach she could also work it to her advantage, it was amazing what a pair of fishnet tights and a promise of a _magical night_ could get you, however she had had to wait until night to approach the Hotel in order to ensure she had maximum advantage in the field. Having procured an access key from one of the bellboys she hung around the lobby area, waiting for the right moment, the female receptionist – late forties, tired and formidable-looking left her male counterpart at the desk. There was no reason not to keep up appearances Zatanna mused disapprovingly as the woman swept past her, she should have either had someone see to her roots or dye her hair dark in stead of sporting that bizarre straggly bleached blonde look. She uncrossed her leg and crossed the lobby to the receptionist desk and then leaned across it enough to show some cleavage to the receptionist – a boy in his mid-twenties who from the look of him was probably desperate for some female company…especially if _that_ was what he had to work with everyday.

"May I help you m'am?"

Did she really look like a _m'am_? She was only in her late-twenties herself but being addressed so formally – hotel protocol or not – was mildly insulting, nevertheless she smiled at the boy as he looked up at her, clearly mildly in awe of her presence.

"Yes," she said warmly, "I'm looking for the room number of an old friend of mine, Mr Bruce Wayne." She smiled sweetly at him but raised an eyebrow suggestively – perhaps playing the old, playboy booking a hooker card would get her the number of the room…then again the kid might call the police on her but if that happened she could just zap him into forgetting she'd ever been in the lobby that night.

"I'll just call him to check m'am." The boy said reaching for the telephone but Zatanna grabbed his arm, only a gentle hold but still tight enough that he understood not to start dialling.

"I wanted it to be a surprise," she impressed upon the boy, "so if you could just give me a room number and a floor that would be…_perfect_." She said, choosing her words carefully – if that hadn't got the boy's heart racing then she was convinced he was gay.

The boy paused a moment, and then began typing something into the computer, clicked on his mouse a few times and then swung round on his chair to face her again.

"Mr Wayne is staying in the Victorian Suite on the fifth floor," he informed.

"Thank you," Zatanna said, pivoting on her heel and heading straight for the elevator, what had been meant to be a simple infiltration had been a painfully long process – hopefully her conversation with Bruce would be rather more swift and to the point. The lift arrived at the fifth floor quickly enough and she moved along the hallway and found the Victorian Suite, slotting the card-key into place and pushing down on the handle opening the door. It opened to the living room of the place, she threw her hands up in defence and managed to say quickly, "Pots," holding Bruce in place as he leapt at her. She murmured the counter-incantation and he moved toward her, at walking pace this time.

"How dare you break into my hotel room," he yelled at her, "I might have killed you."

"You'd have stopped," she disagreed walking past him and settling onto the sofa, crossing her left-leg over her right and resting on the sofa comfortably, "firstly you'd have recognized me the instant you were on top of me and secondly that's presuming I wouldn't have been able to throw up a spell in the time it took you to cross the room to attack me – I also know that you've always read before you go to sleep every night since you were small – it helps you clear your head."

"I stopped that a long time ago," he said, perhaps a touch of pain to that comment, "why are you here? I told you not to follow me."

"Because Bruce," she said, standing up to be on an even playing-field with him, "I know you better than they do, I know I haven't seen you since Gotham but I'd like to think I'm quite close to you – what happened with those assailants wasn't normal, in Gotham you were so controlled, so in _command_ of the situation…you wouldn't normally have been taken down by those goons."

"I'm not used to working with a _gang_…" he muttered under his breath.

"It isn't that – it isn't that Diana was there last night, or Clark, or me is it? There's something else going on? Whatever it is Bruce just tell me…you don't want to work with Clark, fine, you don't want to work with Diana, fine, but at least play ball with me. Metropolis might seem more wholesome than Gotham but there's things going on here – people are going missing, people like me and like you – people that use their powers to fight crime…"

"I know," he said simply cutting her off, "it wasn't choice that I came to Metropolis Zatanna," he said, crossing the room to pour himself a Scotch, taking a small sip of it, "I've been looking into what the government's been doing for more than a year – looking into what happened to Checkmate."

"But how did you…?" she trailed off as realisation dawned on her.

He nodded, "There's very little that I'm not aware off," he said ethereally, "and you're right there is another reason I'm here, they took my _son_." He didn't cry - Zatanna knew that better than anyone but he seemed deeply moved, she almost thought she could see tears forming at the edge of his eyes but in the same instant they were extinguished and gone. In stead he was coughing, she felt the knot build in her throat and then covered her own mouth…there was a smell too, she could see it now – clouds of gas billowing into the room from underneath the door. She tried to form a cohesive word to cast a protective charm but it was too late, she collapsed to the floor and heard Bruce fall a few moments later. With each breath she felt herself drifting further and further from consciousness until all was dark around her, until the light faded at the end of the tunnel and the darkness absorbed her.

. . .

Tess strolled away from the rehabilitation area – it was a more polite term than _detention centre_, and the real aim of the place was to ensure that Chloe felt comfortable and the environment and prepared to help them rather than so uptight and opposed to all things Tess, Tess herself was probably one of the stumbling blocks but she wasn't going to remove herself from the project, if she hadn't have gone underground when she did she'd probably be dead now: not that anyone would know or would mourn her, but that didn't matter either, Tala following briskly at her heels. She might have been older than Tess and a great deal more powerful but Tala was on Tess's turf now and Tess was well aware of how to counteract magic, she had had the pendant specially shipped from Egypt solely for the purpose of guarding her against Tala – she never took it off. Any spell cast on her would bounce off her and attack Tala, the perfect defence.

The two women swept through the facility, passing men armed with sub-machine guns, dressed in combats and the various purple-suited support staff ensuring the facility was running perfectly as they navigated there way toward the main concourse, they entered through one of the many curved-entranceways, passing various jeeps and helicopters as they swept along the length of the gargantuan hangar towards the conference room. They allowed people to move past them before taking a lift down into the depths of the building – it was after all a completely underground facility, she had been preparing the base for some time with funds she'd siphoned away from a LutherCorp account, but the conference room was about as far down as you could go in the base. From above it resembled a disused industrial factory – a reminder of a long forgotten industrial past, but beneath there was a labyrinthine tunnel network, spreading out like a natural cave-system deep into the Earth containing a launch-pad for Tess's operations…whenever the Supervillains struck she would be prepared to rest control of Metropolis back from them – if she didn't stop them there then she would not be able to stop them taking over the country, perhaps – though she didn't wish to admit it – the world.

The lift finally reached the floor, opening and admitting them into the conference room, the far wall displayed a map of the world, while a vast hologram of Metropolis spread out across the centre of the conference table, her three associates stirred slightly in their chairs but she motioned them to stay calm as they took their seats – it was a round-table, the three remaining members were of very different dispositions, one seemed entirely bored with the situation, another mildly pensive, the third inquisitive – wondering what it was exactly that they were to do next.

"I trust we haven't kept you waiting," Tess said firmly, an acidic edge to her voice, aiming the comment firmly at Icicle, seated at the edge of the table radiating a slight chill into the room and making those either side of him look decidedly uncomfortable, "you can of course leave at any time Icicle – I just wouldn't expect to leave _alive_, but I'm sure I can have maintenance bring a body-bag down here if you'd prefer?"

He pouted sulkily and then focused upon the hologram in the centre of the table – it had focused in upon the nucleus of metropolis now, the _Daily Planet_ and the surrounding skyscrapers – then a series of red-dots descended and positioned themselves across the streets of the city and the hologram expanded at the same time, shrinking in scale however to show a variety of red dots across the city and then interlink them all with lines creating the appearance of an enormous web stretched across the city.

"You're looking at all the Metahuman disappearances that we are aware off," Tess continued, the dots now flashed slightly as if anyone had missed them, "intelligence would suggest that whoever is operating is very mobile and operating from short-range bases, with a central containment facility located somewhere in the outskirts – the most likely place would be Suicide Slums but it could equally be one of the other suburbs, there's a lot of underused industrial ground that could be acting as a cover for them."

"So how do we find them?" enquired Roulette – the one who had been most interested when Tess had walked into the room, she seemed to be admiring the city.

"That is where you come in," she said looking Roulette squarely in the eye, swinging her chair a little so she had a direct line of sight with the woman, angling her entire body so that it was facing her, offensively, asserting her control of the situation, "with your contacts within the Metropolis underground you should be able to find out about recent acquisitions in the areas, comings and goings – things that don't add up."

"And what do you want me to do Tess?" asked the third member, the pensive one. "I'm a scientist; I can't help you do anything without any evidence."

"Why Emil I thought that'd be obvious," Tess grinned, "you have an invaluable knowledge of Metahuman genetics – I couldn't have you running around outside giving the government information on how to take down Clark could I? Besides you're the only person I know that I can trust to operate on any of the Metahumans if something goes wrong, you're the only one with the appropriate knowledge."

"Do we even know who it is we're fighting here Tess?" Icicle demanded, rejoining conversation after a slight lull in his concentration.

Tess frowned, "I know who is involved from the government, and it's rather ironic Icicle that I'm sending you into war with the woman who tried to ruin your life, who tried to ruin my life too – Amanda Waller is our enemy."

"But she was killed when Zod attacked the Castle – anyone who was in Checkmate knows that." Dismissed Icicle disbelievingly, he rose from the table and walked away determinedly toward the elevator; Tess produced a remote from the inside of her jacket pocket and thumbed a control on it. For a moment Icicle continued walking unmolested, then there was the smell of fire and smoke and a scream rang out in the room, Tess thumbed the control again and the screaming stopped but Icicle collapsed forward onto the floor. "What did you do to me?"

"It's a failsafe – when everyone joined this operation in your medical I had Emil install a fail-safe in your bodies, in Icicle's cause it's a biomechanical implant that rapidly raises in temperature burning him if he ever disobeyed me or went rogue," she grinned, "now sit down," Icicle obeyed grudgingly, taking his seat once more, "Waller is alive but she assumed a new identity. I visited a plastic surgeon in Las Vegas – a very private clinic that only caters for celebrities or millionaires who don't want to reveal what they've had done, Waller underwent surgery for her burns including an alteration in her skin pigmentation. She then assumed a new identity as a _Miss Caroline Stewart_."

"And you're sure she's leading the supervillains?" Tala quizzed – not that she doubted Tess but because she knew it entertained her mistress to have to have to clue-up her lieutenants as to her exploits and her plans.

"I'm positive she is," Tess said confidently, her mouth twitching into a broader smile, "she released a string of inmates from a maximum security compound on the outskirts of Gotham City, and a number of high-profile Metahumans have gone off-the-radar too, notably Carol Ferris – she's assembling a supervillain team, or rather whoever she's working for, or convinced herself she's working with has – Waller can't see it but she's being played and one of these days a trap is going to close. We're going to stop that trap closing, or at least hold it open long enough to free Clark and his friends."

. . .

She should have been focused upon the plight of Chloe and the others but it was the looks and charms of Diana Prince that had Lois's firm attention – those and the fact that she was also a super heroine in her spare-time, except unlike Lois's short-lived alter-ego Stiletto, Diana was a literal wonder-woman with super-strength like Clark, the ability of flight, also like Clark and a killer outfit that made the latex number Lois had tried to pull off look ridiculous. In short Lois paled in comparison to her and as alpha female she was losing ground fast, it wouldn't be long before the dark-haired harpy had her claws into Clark and she was tossed aside and left in the gutter like a bum to rot.

She smiled sweetly as Diana walked past and leered at her as soon as she was out of Diana's line of sight, the worse thing was that Diana was such a nice person Lois felt bad for hating her – it wasn't her fault she was incredibly pretty and vivacious, she just ticked all of Clark's boxes when Lois probably failed to tick one of them…she'd always known she and Clark were an odd pair. Before she might have looked past it and suggested that she could be the equal of Clark, that theirs was a relationship of equals where she was truly happy…but she wasn't. She was still insecure, still hung up on Smallville and still jealously guarding him in case one morning she awoke and discovered he wasn't lying there next to her in bed.

The phone on her desk rang a few times and she picked it up half-heartedly.

"_Daily Planet_." She snapped.

"Is that Diana Prince, the line's quite bad?" the voice asked, Lois almost – _almost_ – made the automatic snap reply that she wasn't but she'd be back in a few minutes but a little voice in her head murmured the idea. _Mess with her – just a little_, the voice was clearly having trouble telling if Diana was on the end – Lois could interrupt whatever appointment she was going to and deflect the call – a perfect crowning glory to distract her from pursuing Clark.

"This is she," Lois replied in her best imitation of Diana's accent, "what can I do for you?"

The voice paused a moment, "I'm working in the US Government and I have a Story that might be…of interest to the press." It said. Lois immediately changed her plans – she would in stead steal this story from Diana's grasp, Lois Lane would be back on the front cover, she would be back in Clark's warm embrace and he wouldn't even be looking to Diana, he would be too enamoured with his _journalist extraordinaire_ girlfriend.

"Why would it be interesting?" Lois pressed, she wanted an idea of what she was getting into – whether this was one of those prank calls she got or whether she had a full blown conspiracy theory on her hands with key players that she could expose.

"It concerns a senior figure in the Government siphoning of government funds into a project designed to hunt down…_Metahumans_, with the assistance of supervillains – are you interested?" the voice asked uncertainly.

"Name a place and I'll be there." Lois replied simply, she listened to the phone and scribbled down the address on a piece of paper and then just jumped up from her desk, putting down the phone and grabbing her coat as she swept out of the office. She paused as she met Diana at the doorway. "I'll be back in a couple of hours, there's a lead that I need to follow." Lois said simply, passing Diana by – she had her story, and there was no way she was letting Diana get her hands on it. Besides from the sound of the story it might have something to do with Chloe and Bart and AC…she'd be Clark's heroine – she'd find out where all his friends were being held and have landed the biggest story in the history of the _Planet_.

. . .

Hope you enjoyed Chapter 5,

Chapter 6 should be up in a little while,

Reviews welcome, Acrobat x


	6. Chapter 6 Game Of Peril

**Smallville: 2012**

. . .

_Game of Peril_

. . .

The Warehouse was in a particularly dilapidated area of Suicide Slums, there wasn't a single in tact window in the building and from the looks of it nobody had used it in a long time. Dinah had spotted Oliver's calling cards a long way before she found the end of the trail in Suicide Slums, discarded arrows, unconscious guards with symptoms that tallied with having been shocked or knocked out by brute force – he clearly had been serious about the boxing-glove arrows that he'd been developing for a while. She stalked along the roofs of the neighbouring Warehouses keeping an eye on the shadow just a few steps ahead of her before she finally drew level with the same Warehouse as Oliver. He was using binoculars to scan the surrounding horizon as if there might be a huge arrow in the sky pointing down at the ground labelled _evil base here_, making their job easy.

She approached slowly and drew up just short of him, he was angry – she could tell because he cursed under his breath as soon as he realized she was there, he turned around and she could see he was a mixture of angry and deeply upset, the same little tears were at the edge of his eyes and though not quite shaking with anger he intermittently flexed and clenched his fists as though he wanted to punch someone in the face.

"How long have you known about Chloe?" he probed – so that was the issue then, the disappearance of _Chloe_ – she should've tracked him down and told him sooner. Oliver didn't seem willing to let her process it though, he pressed on, "Because you see I'm sure you didn't know beforehand – because if you did you'd have told me wouldn't you? You wouldn't have let me call Watchtower and here the tone call out and have no answer would you? Because you're my friend Dinah, because I _trust you_."

Dinah frowned but prepared a Canary cry in case she needed to stop Oliver from actually physically attacking her, "Oliver look – I wanted to tell you while you were focused, I knew what it would do to you, I was trying to protect you-"

"Protect me?" he scoffed, "If you wanted to protect me Dinah you'd have given me the full information as soon as you had it – how many of the others are gone? Did you know about Victor too or the Wonder Twins? Or John Jones? You and Chloe were covering this up weren't you, trying to convince us all that the walls and caving in all around us and leaving us completely defenceless."

"Don't try and turn this around on me," Dinah said, hearing her voice rise defensively, "if Chloe was hiding this then she clearly had an interim plan or she was trying to protect her like I was, don't let your stupid pride get in the way of us finding where the others are being held Oliver – someone is behind this and unless we get our friends out of wherever they're being held then bad things are going to happen, very bad things and we can't stop them if we're divided."

Oliver seemed to debate what she was saying a moment.

"Fine – but I can't work with you, I can't work with anyone I can't trust and right now I can't trust anyway." Oliver fired his grapple onto one of the neighbouring and using his bow as a swing swooped away into the darkening night. Dinah looked after him for a while – he needed to get out of this rut, if he was going solo then he was going to get himself captured or worse – and then it would just be her, Clark and the new girl trying to protect the entire city – and that just wasn't feasible. She turned around pulling out her cell but it had it knocked flying by a kick, by a furry leg. She looked at what she was facing and frowned.

"I recognize you, your that Doctor who couldn't get anyone to listen to her so experimented on herself," she taunted, assuming a defensive position and preparing a Canary cry, "you're Doctor Minerva aren't you? The one who turned herself into a glorified pussycat." She was baiting the woman mostly because she wasn't entirely sure of her abilities – she was fury all over and resembled a humanoid feline, complete with the tan fur and jet black spots, and a completely lithe body – presumably if she was a Cheetah she had a speed ability over Dinah and that reduced the effectiveness of the Canary cry – she would have to get hand-to-hand with this one.

"And I know who you are," she said, in the moonlight Dinah saw a glint of something – of _claws_ she assessed, "though nobody's called me Doctor Minerva in a long time, I prefer _Cheetah_ now, not that you need know that, I'm about to beat you in a Duel." She grinned and lunged toward Dinah, her claws out stretched like a feral beast. Dinah had a worrying image of a Gazelle being attacked by the Lion on the Savannah the moment before she deflected the incoming blow. She ducked and struck out, hitting the woman in the chest – she was feline in body more than human, though she might have maintained the human form the ferocity of her attacks and her overall appearance, down to the small angular ears reflected those of a Cheetah – like her preferred identity. Dinah ducked back now being pressed back and cursed under her breath as she moved a fraction of a second too slowly to miss a swipe from the claws.

. . .

When you worked at the _Daily Planet_ you learned quite quickly when something was fishy and when something wasn't and this warehouse wreaked like a fish-market left out in the sun, it wasn't in Suicide Slums which was the only reason that Lois had driven down the driveway and not turned back – she'd come here to get a big scoop that would make her look good at the _Planet_ and partly because she wanted to know if it related to the disappearances, and though she was slightly unnerved by the appearance there was also a part of her that recognized the sense in it. Nobody would look for a government agent here and it was the perfect low-key location for a meeting like this. She sucked up the courage and ducked out of her car, crossing the carpark and avoiding the widening puddles – the drizzle was getting heavier and harder now: a storm was brewing.

She heaved open one of the doors – they were the heavy industrial kind that only burly men were meant to handle but unfortunately Lois had not been gifted with the same muscles. She strolled into the centre of the vast place – it must have been a vehicle factory of some type at one point or another, the space was too huge for it to have been used for anything else. She strolled along the inside of it, the wooden floor was wearing away in places – the whole building was probably crawling with termites she reflected and then after reaching the midpoint she turned on her heel and stopped dead and then wasn't sure whether to frown or burst out laughing.

A golden-haired Vixen was standing a few paces behind her, wearing a toga complemented by golden wrist gauntlets and a tiara of some type – the entire affair seemed slightly ridiculous considering how opulent the outfit was and how completely it contrasted with the run-down interior of the place. However Lois saw something that sent her fear spiking, the woman had a sword sheathed at her hip and her hand was hovering above it – as though she might pull it from the sheath and run towards Lois, with it raised above her head screaming and then strike her down in cold blood. Lois reflected that scaring herself more was probably not the best course of action.

"Who are you?" the woman demanded, relaxing her hover above the words slightly, "Where is _Diana_?" She'd dropped the _Prince_ and the tone suggested that the woman – whoever she was – knew Diana well, perhaps she came from the same place.

"I might have taken the call," Lois admitted, bracing herself to try and sprint past the woman and escape, she could see the door, she might be able to outrun the woman – she should have chosen more sensible footwear, her boots were not exactly designed for practicality, "because you said you had information on a conspiracy…in the government – my friends are being taken by those people," there was no sense in hiding information if it offset the women, "I just wanted to find out what I could about them, I'll just go." She said making to walk past the woman but she was having none of it, hovering her hand above her sword again.

"Who are you?" the woman demanded advancing upon her, backing Lois toward the opposite end of the Warehouse from the door. She had not drawn the sword but Lois felt on edge and strangely it was because of the woman's slight physique, it was a deception – somehow Lois understood that she was far more powerful than she appeared, why hadn't she told Clark where she was going? Her pride really got her into trouble a lot of the time.

"I'm…I'm Lois Lane," she said nervously, hearing her voice jump a little, "look…I'm…I'm friends with Diana – I could get her to come her to meet with you."

"You act as if that's a possibility," the woman declared, advancing more swiftly now, "when in fact Lois Lane it is an _inevitability_," she was now about five metres away from Lois and she was radiating menace into the atmosphere around her, "you know you could run," she suggested playfully, "it would make things more fun for me." Lois didn't care what happened – she had to try, she bolted on the second to last word and sprinted past the woman, she could hear her coming after her a nanosecond after she moved and then somehow she was in front of her. She outstretched a fist and slammed Lois squarely in the chest, hurling her backward across the Warehouse. Lois blinked a few times, clutching at her chest as it screamed out in her head in agony. "I didn't introduce myself properly – I believe that is the custom in this world, I am Aresia, Diana has committed a great crime against Themyscira in coming to the world of man and I am here to rectify it, and you will help me, contact Diana." Lois produced her cell and scrolled through her contacts hitting Diana's number and dialling it; Aresia snatched it out of her hands and allowed it to ring a few times.

"Hello sister," she declared, Lois wasn't entirely sure whether that was code for sister as in friends or sister as in actual blood relation, "I have your friend captive," she held the phone out to Lois and kicked her in the stomach prompting a yell, "meet me at the address I'm about to send you in your armour, alone – bring anyone else and the girl dies." She handed it back to Lois momentarily and then began typing out an address into it using the keyboard, and then handing it back to her captive to send it before crushing it underneath her foot.

. . .

He swivelled around in the chair, his starkly pale features and garish lilac suit unnerving her, his green-hair affording him a hint of insanity and his deeply red lips affording him the added unnerving agent of a maniac. He flexed his white gloved fingers and interlocked them, smiling up at her and gesturing for her to take one of the seats, Waller wavered at the fringes of the Office before reluctantly taking one and being gratified that she wasn't immediately shocked to death or plunged into a pit of beasts somewhere far below them.

"You always seem nervous when you are around me _Amanda_," he was using her real name, she had considered the possibility that he had seen through her extensive disguise, just as she had seen through his as soon as he had contacted her, this was a relationship of equals, "I would have thought that an Agent of your…experience would be unperturbed by slight disfigurement, something you yourself have experienced to a great degree."

She ignored the comment; there was little point in giving the Joker the satisfaction of showing he had hit her where it hurt. She needed to be resolute and maintain the semblance of being on an equal-standing with him if she was to continue manipulating him, she still needed him and his help – her government funds might be bankrolling the operation but it was he that was keeping everyone in line, without him she doubted she would have gotten nearly as far.

"Cheetah has engaged Black Canary; if all goes to plan she should be in custody within the hour." Waller updated, she had the utmost faith in Cheetah to deliver the quarry, she was as fearsome as her feline real world counterpart and did not give up the chase nor the fight easily, Canary would tire before Cheetah did, and even if she did not Cheetah could play dirty were Canary could not – Waller had injected Cheetah with a serum that gave her claws a sedative effect, after enough swipes enough of the serum would enter Canary's system that she would collapse from exhaustion – it was just a question of whether or not Cheetah was fast enough to avoid a Canary Cry.

"And in regard to Oliver Queen?"

"Vordigan is pursuing him, last time he reported in he had a visual and was following him until he obtained an improved vantage point, I believe he enjoys the thrill of the chase – Vordigan will want a confrontation with Queen before taking him." Waller understood Vordigan too well and despite his proficiency as an archer distrusted his pride – that would be his downfall she understood, assuming Queen would exploit it. His own grief would be such a diminishing factor that she doubted there would be any fun for Vordigan in the kill.

"As Aresia desires with Diana Prince – I suspect that Clark Kent will soon be the only Metahuman facing us and I have already made provision for his downfall," the Joker said and he laughed a little, there was a hint of triumph and a hint of madness to the laugh, it was delivered in the shrill, unhinged fashion that unnerved Waller to the core, the Joker had risen now and was facing away from Waller, looking out of the Warehouse toward the city, "of course I was never really interested in the Metahumans or their friends – this was merely the precursor to the great act – I already have Bruce Wayne in custody, that was after all the primary objective." He heard the safety click behind him and turned around to find Waller levelling a pistol at him. "Miss Waller – how quaint? You believe you can double cross me?"

"I always carry a gun," she fired back fiercely; "you know that by now."

"It also means that I know how to disarm it," in a flash he had produced a device from his wrist and fired an electrical charge at the pistol, melting its insides and rendering it inoperable, "you see Miss Waller as I am sure you have correctly suspected for some time I have merely been exploiting you, you needed someone that could assist you in plotting and I needed someone that could hand me not only Bruce Wayne but also every other Metahuman threat in the Metropolis area. Your idea of bringing together more criminals to help in the kidnappings was rather inspired and on that I must commend you, it is just a shame that they owe their loyalty to me rather than to you.

"Had you done your research Miss Waller you would discover that I and Bruce Wayne have history from Gotham, of course you arranged for me to escape from prison and Wayne discovered that – so for a time I did owe my salvation to you – your beloved bureaucracy has assisted me in eluding him for long enough to prepare a counterattack, of course I needed to lure him here so I had his Ward kidnapped. Wayne views him as a son and that made him angry, and that allowed him to be sloppy. My assassin might have failed at the Charity Gala but they did succeed in giving me the perfect opportunity to capture him.

"You must know Miss Waller that I am not an ordinary criminal – naturally your putting away the only people who could ever stand against me has been a great asset, you have not only left Metropolis open to take over by criminals – but not only Metropolis, soon the entire country – thanks to Toyman I have an army of Toy Soldiers to use to dominate the country, the regular Army will not stand a chance against me, the World Shall be mine Miss Waller, and for giving it to me I must thank you." He bent down beside his desk, opened the draw and then fired his pistol twice into Waller, allowing her to rock backward onto the floor, _stone, cold dead_.

. . .

Dinah had been elusive when she'd called him, she had seemed to know that Oliver was on a downward spiral, she had somehow known that Oliver would need Clark though at the time Clark hadn't quite understood why, it had only become clearer in light of everything else that was going on – Dinah and Oliver were the only two left, she knew that they would come for her first and she had known who would come after Oliver, she might not have said his name but she had alluded correctly as to who he would be and what that would mean for Oliver. Clark just hoped he was in time.

He had managed to isolate the noise of Oliver and Vordigan a few miles out from where the fight was taking place, it was a new area of high-rise developments – offices and apartments, the glass-steel types that had become so popularized recently – where the two Archers had chosen to face off. Clark had seen evidence of their handiwork neighbourhoods away with discarded Arrows littering the place – the old Master and Apprentice were visible atop one of the Office Buildings. Clark jumped it and landed on the rooftop, he didn't want to approach them too quickly – he might distract either of them and that would mean that someone would die. They had dropped their bows – their quivers lay empty of arrows: discarded to allow them more flexibility as the duel descended hand-to-hand fighting. Oliver's nose was bleeding and Vordigan was sporting an ever-swelling left eye. Vordigan grinned for a moment and then took a hit in the chest from Oliver and then in the face, collapsing to the floor and Oliver pinned him there, Clark approached cautiously – not wishing to spook Oliver. Oliver wrapped his hands around Vordigan's neck in a choke hold, smashing his head against the roof a few times to daze him a little more.

"Oliver don't do this." Clark said quietly, bracing himself in case he needed to intervene to stop it, "Oliver this isn't the way – this isn't what Chloe would want, it isn't what Mia would want – this isn't what any of them would want, Oliver please don't kill him – think what happened when you killed Lex, think what happened to you after that – consumed by guilt? A wreck? Do you want to live like that for ever? I can't believe you do, just keep a hold of him but leave him, he can give us the information we need."

Oliver paused and for a moment Clark thought he might snap Vordigan's neck but his friend relented, easing back on it and then Vordigan grinned and let out a final laugh before it wads drowned out in a yell and he fell silent and slumping against the roof, his head lolling to one side. Oliver punched the roof and let out an anguished yell, Clark dropped to Oliver's side in a crouch and tried to put a comforting arm around his friend's shoulder but found it shaken off.

"This isn't right Clark – we're back to square one Clark, we've lost them all now haven't we? Dinah's gone…and then there's only you and me, and I don't care how super you are but whoever this will have kryptonite, all hope is lost." He said, defeated and dejected, Clark looked out across the city, scanning for a sign and found none.

"We aren't defeated Oliver – we never give up, _never_. We need to get to Watchtower and find them. And make no mistake, we will find them Oliver."

. . .

Hope you enjoyed 6, Chapter 7 up soon,

Acrobat

X

Reviews welcome and appreciated.


	7. 7 In Brightest Day, In Blackest Night

**Smallville: 2012**

. . .

_In Brightest Day, In Blackest Night. _

. . .

She wasn't inclined toward following anyone – Tess Mercer was a leader, not someone who allowed herself to be lead places by others, she might delude people into thinking she was acting on their wishes but that was merely luring someone into a false sense of security. She was a long-term tactician, you play the long-game and you reap the biggest rewards, but in this instance she was using Chloe to lead her somewhere – a point where she could actually stop Waller and her idiotic scheme before she got them all _killed_.

They had been ascending through the superstructure of the facility all the time – though Chloe hadn't let slip what advances she'd made, she'd simply informed Tess that she'd been able to contact two of the Metahumans that she'd been watching for a long time, Emil had actually proved instrumental in convincing one of them to attend the meeting but it was Chloe that had provided the link to the other – Tess doubted that either of them would have come if it had been her asking: that was why she had needed Chloe: _contacts_.

The lift shot past floors until they finally reached Level One – the uppermost floor - and began walking briskly past the idle Helicopters and some of Tess's hired guns waiting for the call to move out: not that they'd be any use against Super Heroes, bullets had a very low success rate against Meteor Powers or against Metahumans in general – she'd learned that part the hard way, but they might at least buy some time – besides if her plan was to be a success she wouldn't need to use the grunts, they would grapple with the ground-troops, the commanders would be the biggest challenge and until she'd released Clark's friends she didn't have anyone to fight those commanders with.

Chloe led Tess to one of the regular Conference Rooms and Tess eyed up the two people waiting – a man and a woman – the man was a white-silver colour, clad in a containment suit of some type, complemented by red gloves and boots, his eyes were a shocking electric-white and he had a hard-edge to him, one that Tess surmised stemmed from Military Service. Across his chest was emblazoned a model of the atom. The woman was rather more normal in appearance – apart from her lengthy, emerald coloured hair and complementing jade-coloured eyes, her lipstick was the same colour but otherwise she had the mildly-tanned complexion of a Latin-American. She was wearing a green jumpsuit with heeled-boots and she smiled warmly at Chloe as she came in.

"Would you care to make introductions Chloe?" Tess prompted, Chloe smiled awkwardly and then looked to the two people – trying to decide who to introduce first, at that point the door behind them opened and Emil came in, hurriedly taking a seat at the table.

"The man is Captain Nathaniel Adams," she introduced, the man-nodded his head in greeting and Tess caught his eye, "and the woman is Beatriz de Costa – she works as a Model and I think they are exactly what you're looking for Tess…from the brief that you gave me…," she could tell from Tess's reproachful look that she wanted information on what powers she had at her disposal, "Captain Adams can manipulate radiation and fly, hence his codename Captain Atom…Beatriz has power over fire, she can manipulate it and conjure it herself which is why she goes by the name Fire – together with Icicle I think they should be able to help bust them all out of wherever they're being held."

"This is assuming we want to help," purred Beatriz seductively, Chloe couldn't tell whether it was intentional or that was just the natural way in which she spoke in English, it could possibly have simply been her Hispanic accent spilling over into her English diction, "as much as I want to help people, I am not sure that I am comfortable working for Miss Mercer, she has a somewhat…dubious history – did you not tell me she once worked for an organisation opposed to Metahumans?"

"I did," Chloe admitted, avoiding Tess's look, "but she's turned over a new life – there is a…very foolish women who's helping villains kidnap Heroes like you and Captain Adams, Beatriz she's going to help those villains take over the city unless you stop them – Metropolis needs your…we need your help – will you do it?"

She looked at her nails and flexed her hand to admire how immaculately manicured they were while she considered the request, "I am in – I have not had very much fun like this, it should be interesting."

"You can count on me too m'am," replied Adams deferentially as though Chloe were his drill Sergeant, "sounds like you folks are in some real trouble and it's my duty to help with my abilities and I'm going to do what it takes to help get your friends out of that place."

"Then it looks like we are all set," murmured Roulette, entering the room in her trademark blood red-dress, with open sides revealing her dark dragon tattoo, "I have found the location of the Warehouse," she handed the address to Tess, "I believe it is time to take the fight back."

. . .

"Do you think it quite prudent to strut before your captives?" she probed – she was unsure of her leader, Waller might have been a fool but she had been a reassuring presence of sanity amongst the mission – she had not thrown herself in with common criminals on the basis of becoming a lackey and the lack of clarity had her worried. If need be she could turn her powers upon the Joker too – he was not invincible, but at the same time she was wary of him, she doubted any of the others were easy about his dominance over them but they were cowards – afraid for their lives. Not her: she was too forthright for that.

"I enjoy it actually," he said, stroking one of the cells and grinning as its captive roared and attempted to break free of his bonds, only to be restrained by them and have an electrical discharge pumped through his body, making his nerves cry out in pain and silencing him, he removed his hand and turned to face her, "and besides an enemy infuriated, is an enemy outmanoeuvred Miss Ferris," he allowed himself a delightful, devilish cackle, "for you see Miss Ferris these captives are quite powerless and quite defenceless, and besides why should I fear them when I have you and your crystal at my disposal?" Her eyes flickered to her bracelet and the magenta gem. "I believe we have a new inmate." He grinned; Carol pivoted on her heel and spotted her furry friend Barbara bearing an unconscious blonde-haired slung over her shoulder, she grinned broadly with her mission completed.

"Dinah Lance," she declared, dropping the body to the floor unceremoniously, it hit with a soft thud, "she was surprisingly tenacious but I got in at close quarters, she never really stood any chance," Cheetah admired her claws, "the sedative proved a considerable improvement to my already lethal arsenal." She purred graciously toward the Joker who ignored the flattery, Carol had recognized early on that he was not interested in an equal to him – Barbara had clearly not already picked up on the same signs.

"And with Aresia preparing to engage Diana Prince that leaves only Clark Kent and Oliver Queen," Carol surmised, "since Vordigan failed in that relatively simple task," she dismissed disdainfully, "you didn't exactly explain what your trump card was in regard to Kent?"

The Joker frowned slightly – that was something she wasn't used to seeing on their manic leader's face, it was a genuine frown of concern rather than one that was a precursor to some triumphant achievement, not a ploy to lure them into a false sense of security, he seemed concerned but it evaporated in an instant and he was back to his usual brand of insanity, grinning in the same unhinged manner that left Carol rooted to the spot.

"I have something that was once very dear to him, something that is now very _lethal_ to him," he turned toward Cheetah who had been admiring her claws, "go and gather up the others would you," she nodded deferentially and left Carol alone with him, "Carol I wonder if you recall a man from your past – by the name of Hal Jordan?"

She was frozen to the spot on the floor once more, so many memories came rushing back…of when they'd been younger and so very in love…of when they'd become enemies…of when he'd joined the Green Lantern's and left her life forever: but how could he know? Hal had left Earth behind years previously and she'd known he wasn't coming back, which in a way was why it had hurt so much at the time. But he'd been gone from her life for a long time and she didn't have feelings for him now…they were too different, too far apart – the spark had gone.

"We were involved a few years ago," she admitted honestly, "why?"

"Because he, or rather his alter ego Green Lantern recently returned to Earth in pursuit of a rogue of their ranks – Sinestro," at that point the Joker gestured behind him with his arm and a being stepped out of the darkness in a yellow suit, similar to Hal's but somehow…harsher, with red-skin and pointed ears moved toward them until he drew up just short of the joker, "Sinestro's Power-Ring had unfortunately needed time to recover after their initial engagement in the Upper Atmosphere but he will not be able to take Jordan down alone.

"I need you to assist him – as _Star Sapphire_ – distract Jordan long enough for Sinestro to take him down, you can then use your crystal and together you will kill one of the last remaining true threats opposing us, Oliver Queen is little more than a billionaire playboy with some toys – and I shall deal with Clark Kent personally." The Joker enthused dramatically; at that point the door slid open, revealing Cheetah and the other Criminals working for him.

One stepped forward from among them dressed in a voluminous green trench-coat with a pair of tiny-emerald spectacles perched on his nose and greasy, messy brown hair; he grinned in equally as mad a fashion as the Joker, rubbing his hands together excitedly.

"My friends," he addressed without an inch of truth – if any of them thought they could trust the Joker they were implicitly wrong, "it is time for our final moves – the Heroes are all but destroyed and I now have the tools at my disposal to execute my grand scheme," the Joker grinned wider still as though reaching his crowning glory, "first we shall take over Metropolis, then once our hold is secure the world – without Superheroes there is no line that the governments of the world can draw against us, we shall sweep them from the skies and the seas and annihilate them on the ground."

He gestured to Toyman who grinned at step-forward.

"May I present my Toy Soldiers," the mechanical creatures, reminiscent of those from the Nutcracker with the fiery-red helmets and vintage era uniforms marched forward from ranks between the Criminals with their rifles raised for walking, "they are programmed to obey your commands – they will overpower any opposition to you and assist you while you effect the major takeovers: our domination shall be complete."

"Your soldiers await you in the main area," the Joker briefed, "go my friends, go and wreak havoc upon Metropolis – the day is ours!" The criminals nodded and sprinted out of the room in a general melee, racing for the first blood across the city. Caro lingered and caught Sinestro admiring her suit – admittedly it was not understated but then she had never been one to just "fit-in", she had instead opted for a black cat suit, cut-off above the knees with long, stretched-out pink boots, a mask modelled on a tribal style she had seen once in her customary magenta, with glove to complement the entire ensemble.

"You like what you see?" she probed.

"I can see why Hal is so infatuated," he commented starkly, "we must go – we must take him out quickly." She nodded and ran of after Sinestro, not even bothering to turn and face the Joker.

. . .

Lois struggled with her bonds, she had been tied up tightly and her arms were starting to hurt from the amount of effort she was putting into it as she cut herself trying to loosen the bonds and escape – anyone would think with her experience of being kidnapped by nut-jobs she'd be a pro at escaping but now she only had Diana to rely on instead of Clark, and she wasn't sure that the girl from Greece could exactly pull-off a Clark style rescue. The door opened casting light into the dull interior of the Warehouse and Diana entered, dressed in the leotard that she recalled Clark mentioned, complete with tiara and a lasso attached at her waist. She entered and Lois blinked to avoid the sun glinting of her wristlets, Diana took a few steps before swivelling and taking Aresia's intended attack on the front. She was only on the floor for a second however; kicking Aresia square in the chest and sending her Amazon sister hurtling over her head, smashing into the floor with a crack.

Aresia however was back on her feet in an instant, grinning and snarling through the pain as Lois spotted a trickle of blood trail out of her nose as she ran at Diana, dodging an incoming uppercut to smash Diana on the right side of her face before yelling in a warlike fashion and slamming a kick into Diana's waste, sending the Princess stumbling backwards slightly winded. Lois wriggled her hands and felt the ropes begin to slacken but didn't have too much time to consider that as she ducked to avoid Aresia as she sailed across the room – clearly having suffered a serious hit from Diana who charged across the room. Lois swivelled her head in time to see Diana jab an elbow into Aresia's chest, dodging a second hit aimed at her face and succeeding in landing an uppercut, sending Aresia rocketing up toward the roof such was the force off it.

The Amazon however recovered midflight, pivoting her body into a tight flip that Lois would have envied back in her Cheerleading days as she barrel rolled down, landing her hands squarely on her shoulders, and flipping her body down, in the process picking Diana up by her shoulders and hurling her across the greater length of the Warehouse. Striding down toward Diana who was in the process of forcing herself up as she arrived, before taking a kick to the face and a double hit to the back-of-the-head, she slumped to the floor and Lois felt fear strike through her like a lighting bolt. Diana was about to die and then she would be next. She closed her eyes tightly and thought through what she should do – what she could do in the situation and then opened her eyes widely. She bit through the gag and tore it, and then she screamed.

. . .

Chloe steadied herself slightly as the armoured car rocked with the tremor of an explosion – somewhere distant to them but regardless she was scared, around her Metropolis was in flames, the tall skyscrapers were burning – somehow the _Daily Planet_ seemed to have escaped the worst of the damage but otherwise the villains were taking over, she'd seen groups of civilians rounded up by hideous Toy Soldiers, while other villains she barely recognized apart from a brief run through of the Rogues Gallery of Arkham Asylum, Metropolis was falling and they needed to arrest the situation. She put her attention back upon the laptop, the coordinates for the secret base were growing steadily closer as the convoy moved further out of the city – she was in the second car, the command car – the lead car was a decoy.

"Do you think we're going to be in time?" Chloe asked but Tess motioned her to silence as the car turned sharply and Chloe realized they were almost on top of the base. The car drew to a stop and Chloe went to open the door but Tess stopped her, they instead watched as Tess's hired guns jumped out in their uniforms, holding their assault rifles and then flung open the doors, pouring in – evidently Fire, Icicle and Captain Atom had them occupied. Chloe ducked out of the car after Tess and kept pace with her as she crossed the lot – Roulette had left once she had completed her part of the mission, believing her service had been served, Chloe held the suspicion that she was likely dead though Tess was acting like an enigma – she wasn't getting anything out of her.

Tess turned to look at Chloe, "They'll be fine – I don't trust Chloe, I know – they will all be fine."

. . .

Oliver leapt down into a crouch and then swept his crossbow across the facility, the cells, illuminated from above stretched out towards a central console at the end – he was ensure in which cell Mia was but he knew all his friends were here, he crept forward slowly – wary of triggering any booby-traps or alerting any guards to his presence, navigating the ventilation system of the facility had been difficult to say the least: he'd triggered one trap that almost sawed him in half and suffered a burn on the back of his leg after he'd set off a laser trap – it would have cut straight through his leg if he hadn't moved fast enough.

He stood up after he was confident that he was safe and then swivelled round, grabbing the incoming strike at his face and snapping the arm at the elbow – breaking it, kicking the grunt in the chest and sending him stumbling backward, the guard fumbled about and then produced a pistol, levelling it at Oliver. Oliver flinched on the spot and then heard the mild whoosh around him as Clark moved at hyper-speed around him, deflected the bullets and then super-hurled the grunt into the wall, knocking him unconscious. At that point they heard the noise behind them and turned on their heels, spotting another grunt seated at the console rapidly typing something – an endgame. Oliver levelled his bow but Clark ran at speed, knocking him away and then turning to Oliver, confident that their friends were safe.

"It's been a long time." Murmured another voice and Clark bent as the air around him plummeted in temperature – he saw Icicle beside him and reacted instinctively, hurling him against the wall and knocking him down, he then felt intense heat around him and turned, seeing a woman he didn't recognized dressed in green, her entire body somehow aflame with emerald energy and behind her a man dressed in an ivory white containment suit with blank-white eyes, clenching his fists in his gloves and then flexing them in anger. The woman then motioned to him and he relaxed, she then herself resumed her human form.

"I would assume you are Clark Kent," she said in Spanish, walking past him and thumbing a key on the console, it flashed a 'Release' message across the screen, "it seems you have beaten us here, just as she predicted you would, although you had no need to attack Icicle, he was here to help – he is our teammate." She murmured, Clark was disinterested however, he was too busy looking at the various cages, the cell's doors flung open as one and their prisoners staggered out of him – they were all there, and then he turned to face the screen.

"Mr Kent I have something that might interest you," murmured the Joker, the hideous figure looking down from the screen, "you were romantically involved once I believe, I think you should meet us, but, of course you know where we are – Lana is waiting Clark, and time is running out but there remains another dimension Kent – I also have your girlfriend Lois in captivity, who do you choose Clark? Who do you rescue – for one of them will _die_." The message winked out – it had clearly been pre-recorded, Clark felt Bruce Wayne come up behind him and look at the image and then snarl. Standing beside him was a dark-haired teenage boy, dressed in a similar red-green costume to that worn by Wayne himself, his eyes remained hidden by a mask, reminiscent of the masks people wore to Venetian Costumed Balls.

"I'm going with you," he said simply, "you can't take him alone – you don't understand how he works." Clark nodded acceptingly, and then tensed his legs to keep himself rooted to the spot as another shockwave rocked through it – but a much larger one than those before, as though a bolt of thunder had struck the ground and shaken it to the core. Clark immediately leapt up, smashing straight through the floors to the roof and ran out to see what was missing – and then he saw it, collapsing. The _Daily Planet_ disappeared from its summit, collapsing downwards and disappearing altogether from the skyline, he couldn't help there, he reversed his previous moment, arriving in the midst of the Heroes. He spotted Aquaman uproot a pair of water pipes from beneath the gantry, soaking himself in nourishing water, while he saw Mia and Courtney return with their respective weapons from a room off the main detention area.

"Metropolis is under attack," he murmured, "we have to work as a team to stop them." They nodded their assent and broke into a sprint out of the facility – this would be the defining moment of fight between them. Clark spotted Wayne change into his costume in the blink of an eye, pulling the mask down over his face to conceal it an watching after the boy as he ran off with Mia into the streets, "Are you ready for this?"

"He tried to take everything from me," Batman replied grimly, "now he's going to pay."

. . .

Hope you enjoyed Chapter 7,

The final Chapter will be up in a little while,

Be patient,

Reviews welcome,

Acrobat

X


	8. Chapter 8 Endgame

**Smallville 2012**

. . .

_Endgame_

. . .

The distraction was enough. Diana saw Lois tear through the gag and then heard her scream in slow motion, everything around her slowed down, she saw Aresia jerk her head in the direction of the cry, drops of her blood splattering down toward her, and that was enough, Diana forced herself up on her arms once more and in the same movement, drove her fist into Aresia's abdomen – the momentary distraction had given her the advantage. Aresia sailed upward and toward the roof, smashing through it, Diana rose to her feet, looked at Lois and then leapt after Aresia. Catching up with her and meshing her fists together, smashing Aresia back down toward the Warehouse, following her down as she tore through the roof, smashing one of the skylights in the process.

Diana crouched on the floor beside Aresia, and picked her up by her neck and stared at her, Aresia's eyes were bloody now, one was swollen closed and the other was streaming and bloodshot, she thought against Diana's grip and Diana sent her skyward once more for good measure, following her into the sky and unfurling her lasso, tossing it and hooking it around Aresia, swinging her around to disorientate her and then sending her ground ward again, landing beside her in a repeat position, the only difference being that Aresia's face was bloodier and her arms were more cut up.

"What are you doing here sister," Diana demanded, "I left you on Themyscira with the other Amazons…the night that I left you, left the island – I avoided you purposefully because I knew how you would react, you would prefer we remained isolated and thus remained vulnerable to danger wouldn't you?"

"I see now," Aresia hissed, "that the world of man has truly corrupted you – I came to bring you back into line, bring you back to the island for the crime of stealing the armour you now flaunt so boldly before all gathered here," she began cackling, "I am regretful that I did not complete the task myself and I am regretful that it took me so long to get here, but I have one thing not to regret Diana," she regained her strength enough to lean in close, "today you die."

"Diana!" the yell came a fraction of a second to late for her to react, Diana rebuked herself for giving Aresia the opportunity to distract her – she should have dispensed with her, but they had needed the information. She felt the curse burn through her and she collapsed to the ground, writhing in anarchy and turned to face the Sorcerer, he was draped in violet with a headscarf that left only his pale face visible to the world – he was clearly not a born Sorcerer but one that had acquired an appetite for magic – she could tell that from his shoddy appearance.

"You know Aresia," Diana said fighting against the pain as she lay on the floor next to her former sister, she noted the arrival of a fifth presence in the room – a humanoid feline, deftly stalking across the room from the far entrance, she had moved past Lois now and was drawing level with the Sorcerer, "there is something that you should never doubt – there is a reason the Titans never defeated the Olympians, there is a reason that Evil never defeats Good Aresia – because the Evil are weak and prone to over-estimation." At that point she sprang to her feet, and twisted herself over the top of them, fighting through her screaming pain receptors to land behind the feline, grab her shoulders and throw her over her head, sending the vile creature howling into the distance until she impacted with the wall.

She saw the Sorcerer's hands flaring with magical energy, growing all the shades of the spectrum and raised her gauntlets defensively – now would be the true test of her armour's limits but then she relented and instead turned her attentions to the feline. The Sorcerer scoffed with a laugh and cackled confidently, "Insolent Woman – now you shall die."

"I don't think so," murmured a voice as a sixth presence strode into the room, the Sorcerer swivelled firing his bolts at her but she deflected them harmlessly, "I don't like people that abuse magic like a tool – _Knis ni eht dnorg_!" Zatanna yelled, instantly watching the Sorcerer's feet be sunk into the ground, "And I don't like people that attack my friends either." She declared, knocking Aresia unconscious with a simple hex. She ran toward Lois as Cheetah and Diana sailed across the room, grappling with one another furiously.

"Zatanna behind you!" Lois shouted as she broke free from her bonds, Zatanna turned in time to intercept the beam – she could discern the magic's origin, it was certainly stolen – that much was clear, no-one like the Sorcerer was naturally endowed with them – the spells were Greek, which was the reason the counter-spells were so fresh in her mind. She caught the beam and then under her breath began chanting the hex that she had learned, the light of the beam which had been a dull amethyst turned to a deeper violet and then into a softer fuchsia as it pulsated between them, Zatanna dug in her heels and closed the distance, manipulating the beam with her white-glove clad hands, until she drew level with the Sorcerer and he stared at them. Lois looked away as there was a bright flash of light and the Sorcerer lay on the floor, slumped and unconscious, she ran to Zatanna who was now watching the duel between Diana and Cheetah.

Diana was bloody but showed no signs of tiring from the feet, if anything her attacks were becoming more coordinated, she blocked a swipe from Cheetah's claws with her gauntlets, blunting the sharpened blades and knocking them away harmlessly, landing an uppercut to Cheetah's jaw – not that the duel was all one way. Cheetah responded by springing nimbly over Diana, grabbing her by her hair and swinging her round horizontally in a half-circle, knocking her into the dirt, Zatanna would have gotten involved but at such close quarters it was difficult to tell who her spell would hit.

Lois flinched visibly as Diana's head crunched with another impact on the ground and she stayed down in stead of rising this time, Cheetah turned back snarling with the sweet taste of victory before dropping to the floor, clutching at her ears and yowling, Dinah dropped from the ceiling into a defensive crouch and on having appraised that the situation was in control, moved to Diana's side and helped her to her feet.

The four women regrouped at the centre of the Warehouse.

"We need to get back to the City – there are villains and Toy Soldiers everywhere – Chloe's helping move most people out of the City or into cover but they can't protect everyone." Dinah impressed upon them, Lois hadn't picked up on the distant rumblings before – she'd presumed there was a thunder storm having been cooped up for most of the day at the pleasure of Aresia – evidently they were explosions and the City was crumbling around them.

. . .

After weeks of being cooped up it felt good to be fully immersed in water – especially good considering he was protecting people and he was about to get even with Black Manta – he could see his suited adversary towards the bottom of the tank, grasping a harpoon-gun close to his chest – presumably plotting to deal his foe a lethal blow – not that that fazed AC, he grinned as he took great strokes towards the bottom of the tank and smashed a fist into Manta's helmet – denting it and being rewarded with a spout of bubbles – the suit was compromised and leaking.

Manta turned surprisingly nimbly for someone wearing such a bulky suit, dropping the bulky harpoon gun – it was useless at close quarters – and instead levelling his wrist at AC, shooting several darts out – like miniature torpedoes they raced across the tank, their tips containing vials of poison – designed to wear down an adversary. AC easily dodged the first salvo, slipping in between them with little trouble but felt one graze the bottom of his leg and groaned as he first spotted the ooze of blood drifting outward from his foot and then felt the poison begin seeping into his bloodstream. He focused; he could feel the vibrations from Manta closing in but in stead called out telepathically to the creatures in the tank for help.

He opened his eyes – his normally perfect underwater vision was blurring, he took a swipe at Black Manta but it was delivered so sluggishly that it past wide and allowed Manta within the swipe, allowing him to score some cheap shots in Aquaman's abdomen, causing him to wince and then angling a kick that caught him on the side of the phase, causing his head to spin as he drifted limply towards the base of the tank. He called out once more, allowing his telepathy to engage the creatures of the tank. He blinked his eyes as Manta dove downwards towards him – silhouetted against the top-lighting of the tank, and tried to stand him but felt his legs seize up – the poison was beginning to shut down his body.

He opened his eyes feebly and spotted two silhouettes honing in on Manta from behind him. A second later he was shooting to the surface and he emerged on the side and felt himself be carried and then dumped on the side, there was a stabbing pain in his arm and then he was wide awake once more and his feet were coming awake. He squinted and then blinked a few times to clear his eyes and spotted who'd rescued him, Mia, her hair still wet from the engagement smiled at him, he looked down and spotted Dick – Robin he corrected – tossing away an empty syringe, he grinned.

"Didn't realize I'd have to save your ass," he grinned, "although your buddies helped." AC bent over the side of the tank and groaned as his head span – he'd moved too fast – but he saw what had saved him, two Tiger Sharks were circling a few meters below, Manta's lifeless suit lay on the bottom of the tank – presumably he'd been stunned by the two Sharks, he could never be sure. The Aquarium shook and dust drifted down from the rafters.

"Go," he encouraged the two younger Heroes, "I'll be fine here."

. . .

"Okay causing this much shade on a sunny day? Not cool!" Courtney yelled as she dove out of the sky, firing blasts from her staff at the Shade as he dodged along the road, he turned and fired a few blasts from his cane which she swung between to dodge, barrel-rolling upward until she was hovering comfortably above him, she pointed her staff downward and sustained the beam this time, lengthening it and then furling it around the shade, wrapping him tight and then lifting him up, smashing him face first into a building and leaving him slumped and out of action.

"Courtney behind you!" yelled Mia too late for her to avoid the enormous, glowing yellow fist as it strove down, she plummeted from the sky face first into the road, slumping with her staff, Mia levelled her bow at the assailant, flinging of a couple of her regular arrows but they harmlessly bounced off – Robin twirled a few of his discs at the floating villain but they proved equally as ineffective, Mia sprinted having checked that they were safe to Courtney's side, checking her pulse and assuring that she was still alive.

"We need to keep moving," Robin appraised, "if she's fine we have to go – the longer we keep dealing with the bottom feeders, the more time they have to execute their plans – the Aquarium was a diversion."

"Well look what we found," hissed Copperhead as he pounced from the side of the building, fangs barred, "a couple of bite size snacks." He neared Robin, as Speedy levelled her bow at her dancing partner – Volcana, she bent over as though she was blowing a kiss and Speedy dodged the flames at the very last moment, forward rolling and flipping up in time to fire an ice-arrow from her quiver, levelling it and firing it. For a moment she had almost convinced herself it had worked, Volcana remained motionless for a moment – but then the ice began fragmenting and breaking down at the edges until she smashed free, snarling in earnest as she fired bolts of fire towards Mia.

Robin ducked and dived to avoid Copperhead's fangs, trying to land kicks and punches inside of him but failing each time as the taller fighter pressed him back. He fumbled in his utility belt ever few seconds to try and grab a disc to use at close quarters or one of his poles but to on avail, each second leaving him more vulnerable to attack. He spotted his opening and twisted out of Copperhead's grasp, slipping down to the ground and sliding through the spread legs of Copperhead, flipping up and landing a kick in the small of his back.

He heard Mia yell behind him and turned to see what had happened – she'd clearly been caught by a blast from Volcana and be burned – but he had little time to focus on her troubles as Copperhead's fist smashed into his face, knocking him to the ground, following up swiftly with a kick in the chest and the groin that caused him a rare cry of pain as he lay on the floor. Copperhead didn't allow for respite, pulling him up by his suit, bending his knees and springing up, hurling Robin head first towards a streetlight, an ear-splitting crack sounding out as he collided with it.

Copperhead now turned to Mia but she wasn't allowing him to get involved, she fired an arrow and Copperhead braced to dodge it but then cursed under his breath as it exploded, releasing a net that wrapped around him and then diffused an electrical shock, paralysing him and dropping him to the floor bagged up tightly. Volcana's fire shots were becoming more frequent but she had also closed distance – this meant her shots were less advantageous and Mia now had the advantage. She raised her fists and blocking a strike from Volcana, turning her right hand vertical and jabbing at Volcana's neck causing the older woman to scream as pain resonated through her body.

The momentary paralysis gave Mia the edge as she delivered an uppercut to Volcana's jaw and then followed up as she stumbled backward with a punch to the face, breaking her nose cleanly and causing blood to gush out of her nostrils. As it dripped down Mia clasped her hands together and elbowed her squarely in the chest, causing her to bend at the knees and she seized on the low stature, grabbing Volcana by the head and driving her down into the ground, successfully knocking her out, Mia dusted her hands off and then ran to Dick's side. The throw from Copperhead had probably broken his collarbone and his arm but he would leave, she bent and though she didn't know why kissed him softly on the head and then sprinted off in the direction of downtown Metropolis but paused as the ground shook with the force of another explosion.

. . .

Clark had gone on ahead – he wanted to go in together with Bruce but in reality Bruce was only a man, he had a few gadgets like Oliver but it wasn't realistically safe for him to go into an environment like this – he might know the Joker but at the end of the day the Joker could kill Bruce if necessary, it would take a hell of a lot more than a bullet to kill Clark, and besides this was his battle now – Bruce had his loved ones back safely in his grasp, Clark didn't have that – Lois was still being held hostage and the Joker had Lana.

Clark cruised in low toward the Luthorcorp building, springing up at the last moment till he landed at the summit of the roof, and spotted Lana – the Kryptonite wasn't effective at this range but within a few meters it would be, she was chained up somehow – Clark couldn't define exactly what metal was being used but it was strong enough to bind Lana and the abilities of the suit. Clark spotted the Joker with a pistol and the Joker grinned madly, levelling the pistol at Lana.

"Come Clark – your beloved is only seconds away from death – if you dare then you can save her – if you do not then she will die and you will have another death on your conscience," the Joker laughed shrilly as he cocked the pistol in readiness, "your call Mr Kent." Clark heard the trigger pull in slow-motion, his legs were already moving beneath him as he began crossing the roof, he could feel his powers eroding with every step but he gritted his teeth and powered forward. He could see the bullet now, travelling towards Lana whose face was scrunched up in a scream of peril, Clark dove the last few feet, angling his fist in a manner that he hoped would crumple the roof and buck Lana too a safe distance. Unfortunately the Joker's uppercut met him square on in the jaw, deflecting him, Clark spotted Kryptonite glowing on the knuckle-duster as the Joker stood above him grinning, Clark looked at him as he first levelled his pistol at Lana and fired a single shot, procuring a scream from her and then produced a Kryptonite sword. He felt his guts twist as the blade jabbed into his abdomen, driving up underneath his ribcage – not enough to kill him but enough to immobilize him.

. . .

"What is the problem Star Sapphire?" Sinestro taunted from beside her in the sky above Metropolis, "When I left you, Jordan was on the run and I heard you sent him crashing into this building – I had simply presumed you might finish the job." Carol said nothing and instead descended slowly toward the ground, she could tell things were going awry – the Heroes who had presumably escaped from the facility were now taking down the villains and the Toy Soldiers rapidly, as if to confirm her thoughts a blur of green-energy flared across the street below, taking out a swathe of soldiers as a flashes of electric-blue energy melted or dissolved more of the clockwork soldiers.

She dropped down swiftly and then angled forward, sailing into the flaming wreckage of the _Daily Planet_; she could immediately see Hal, glowing in the darkness of the superstructure, his mask remained fixed tightly to his eyes but his body was motionless, he stirred slightly as she drifted closer to him, she felt Sinestro draw up behind her, staring imperiously down at his former colleague – Jordan looked up at him and his face tightened resolutely against his fate. He looked up toward her and his piercing eyes cut straight through to her – was this really what she wanted on her conscience murder? The truth of the matter was that she had assumed the role of Star Sapphire in the pursuit of beautiful things, it allowed her to be an effective jewel thief, breaking into the most secure vaults in the world and seize the most valuable gems and trinkets for her personal collection – it gave her life a sense of meaning. This wasn't what she wanted.

"A job well done in bringing him down," Sinestro praised, "but if you are not willing to finish the job then I shall dispatch Green Lantern – another member of their pathetic Corps wiped from the face of the galaxy." He levelled his wring and Carol spotted it flaring, she focused upon her crystal and then turned toward Sinestro, firing a single beam toward him. Unfortunately it was not quite enough to incapacitate him, she took the secondary blast square in the chest as she soared into the sky, she raised her hand to her headdress in order to focus the blast, aiming at squarely at Sinestro who had conjured a simplistic shield above his head with his ring. She dodged further back while intensifying the beam and then sailed forward, only to shoot through his shield as he dissipated it and take the full force of an enormous yellow-fist to the small of her back, nose-diving toward the ground and crashing through the superstructure to lie next to Hal in the rubble.

She spotted Sinestro descending and lifted her hand to her crystal to defend herself but heard Hal murmur something and stopped.

"I hadn't expected you to be so weak-willed," he sneered as he levelled his ring toward her, "but I will dispense of you just as easily as I shall dispense of this amateur." He levelled his ring but before he had a chance to fire it twin-beams targeted him, the green energy of Hal's ring and the fuchsia energy of Carol's crystal intertwining to focus and subsequently blast past and through to Sinestro, knocking him backward and leaving him collapsed on the floor, defeated. Hal lifted himself out of the rubble and bent beside Sinestro, grabbing his power-ring from his hand before tending to Carol and lifting her out. She embraced him and kissed him passionately on the lips before relenting as she recalled the Joker's plans.

"We have to find the Joker," she instructed, "_now_."

. . .

"Now how does it feel Clark – you've lost one of your greatest loves and I am about to kill you in cold blood here as your precious city burns all around you, does it hurt Clark? To know that you failed, to know that your friends are dying and to know that you couldn't save everyone? Does it sting at you every time you think about the people that you didn't save today?" the Joker taunted as he angled the Kryptonite blade toward Clark, twirling it in his fingers as he circled his incapacitated foe. "Batman," the Joker addressed as he swivelled to face his grey-black suited foe who snarled a little, "what's the matter Bats? Did I do something wrong?"

"Firstly you kidnapped my son," he declared, throwing one of his Batarang's which slashed a gouge into the Joker's skin, tearing away the fabric of his suit, "and then you schemed to hurt innocent people and torture people all in your sick quest for power – I always knew you were messed up in the head but I didn't think you could actually go to those lengths Joker, I didn't think it possible that you could actually stoop lower than you already have but kidnapping teenagers? That's a new low." The Joker stood up and grinned wider still. Batman threw another Batarang and it knocked the Joker to his feet but he simply cackled instead of crying out in pain as he cast his head skyward, offering his face for Batman to slash with another Batarang.

"Do the job Batman – kill me, kill me and destroy this entire city," the Joker grinned madly, "there is a Nuclear Device in the basement of the _Daily Planet_, while your little band of heroes are stretched out thin and wide across the City trying to stop my villains a timed device is counting down in the basement, and when the clock runs out – boom," he laughed disconcertingly, "Metropolis disappears in one blast and takes out the only Heroes that could ever truly make a difference."

"Not today it doesn't," announced a voice, Batman turned on his heels in time to see a Green blur dart away from the building, he braced himself as Star Sapphire – or Carol Ferris as he knew her – approached, dressed in her black-magenta jumpsuit, she lifted her hand to the crystal in her headdress and focused her beam at the Joker incapacitating him on the floor, she caught Bruce's look and waved him down, "sometimes you only learn what side you're on at the last moment." She looked past Bruce as she watched Hal ascend into the sky, carrying with him the device. She felt the shockwave knock her to the floor as the explosion reverberated around her ears, she heard Bruce hit the floor beside her as she looked up and spotted the amber mushroom-cloud blossoming out across the city, she sprinted to the edge of the building and pencil-dived of it, sailing toward Hal as he plummeted from the sky, but she saw a blur fly past her and halted. She saw Clark catch him and relented that it was all over – they were safe.

. . .

_Three Weeks Later_

. . .

Chloe had never seen the Watchtower so crowded as she descended the staircase, followed by Clark, Diana, Bruce and Hal – the four saviours of the day by all accounts, she paused and then beamed at the assembled Heroes as they all fell silent, she nodded encouragingly to Clark and he stepped forward, standing awkwardly – public speaking had never been his forte – as he mentally prepared himself to address them.

"What we did together as a Team was phenomenal, we protected Metropolis and saved countless lives from the evil plans of the Joker – but he is only one in a vast number of villains, most of them are behind bars but there will always be a new villain or a new weapon that needs fighting," Clark declared boldly, "the Earth will always need protectors, we are going to be those protectors, you will find earpieces here at the front of the room – Chloe will use these from Watchtower to contact you if we need your help, membership is of course optional but together we think we can make a real difference not just here in Metropolis but in the wider world also…I guess that's it." He stood down and there was a smattering of applause before people broke of into separate groups.

"I spoke with the Guardians," Hal began swiftly, wishing to say his piece before the others, "they've assigned me to remain on Earth as a permanent Lantern here, so looks like I'll be sticking around a little longer."

"Me too," Diana grinned tenaciously, "I think I can make a real difference here in the world of Man – whether my mother disapproves or not, together we can really make a difference here, and I would like to make up for lost time on the Amazons behalf."

"Well sorry to rain on everyone's parade," disagreed Bruce, "but me and Robin work as a solo outfit, just call us associate members, if it's an emergency then we'll be here, otherwise we have our work cut out in Gotham."

Clark nodded, he then turned as Lois walked up and grinned slightly, her cuts from the duel were beginning to subside and she smiled as she planted a loving kiss on him, wrapping her arms around his neck, and then reluctantly pulling apart, "So you got your team sorted out Smallville?"

"In a manner of speaking," he said casting his head over the crowd of assembled heroes, "although I still need my secret identity – think you can help me out with that?"

"Lois Lane – Reporting for duty!" she joked and kiss him more enthusiastically.

. . .

Thank you for staying with me throughout my first Smallville Fic,

Hope you enjoyed it, there might be another one

In the works but I don't know,

Reviews welcome,

Acrobat

X


End file.
